Photo: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images
With less than a week until the New York City mayoral election, things are starting to get truly bizarre. On Tuesday, the Times of London published an article containing quotes that ostensibly came from former mayor Bill de Blasio, in which he seemingly went back on his previous endorsement of Zohran Mamdani and criticized his campaign promises. According to the piece, de Blasio was starting to feel like “the math doesn’t hold up.” Quite the heel turn for ol’ BdB! The problem is that he didn’t actually say that, and the Times got duped by a de Blasio impersonator.
“I want to be 100% clear: The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated,” de Blasio wrote in a social-media post. “It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled. I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”
The article has since been deleted from the Times website, but was up long enough for the New York Post to aggregate the quotes. “In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial,” the fake de Blasio said. “While the ambition is admirable, the cost estimates — reportedly exceeding $7 billion annually — rest on optimistic assumptions … about eliminating waste and raising revenue through new taxes.” An Andrew Cuomo consultant latched on to these fake quotes, retweeting the Post story and saying that Mamdani’s campaign is all “glitter and vibes.”
In actuality, de Blasio remains steadfast in his backing of Mamdani. In another post, he called the article a “violation of journalistic ethics” and said “the truth is I fully support @ZohranKMamdani and believe his vision is both necessary and achievable.” De Blasio officially endorsed Mamdani in September with an op-ed in the New York Daily News, lauding his proposals for universal child care, free buses, and a rent freeze.
So how did this happen? The Times did not say exactly what went down, but told the New York Times that its reporter had been “misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.” The paper also said it apologized to de Blasio. What does that mean, exactly? Was this as simple as someone nabbing the email DeBlasio61@yahoo.com and using it to catfish reporters? Apparently, kinda.
On Wednesday, Semafor reported that the writer of the piece, Bevan Hurley, sent an email to an address he believed belonged to de Blasio. It’s unclear how he found that email address, but he got a response and included the quotes in his article. When Semafor reached out to the de Blasio impersonator via the same email address, the person responded, “You are correct. It was me. The real Bill DeBlasio.” They had nothing else to say on the matter. Pretty good bit, if we’re being honest.
This post has been updated.
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