President Donald Trump singled out a familiar face on Fox News as the midterm returns came in Tuesday night. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was on the network arguing that Democrats could compete in Texas and Florida in 2028. Trump wanted to know why Fox had invited him on in the first place. He accused the network of bearing some responsibility for Republican losses by repeatedly giving the opposition airtime.
De Blasio appeared on Fox’s November 3rd election broadcast as the network tracked races across the country. Returns from the Wyoming Senate race ran across the bottom of the screen. The question before the panel was what voters had told the parties about the economy and whether Democrats had policies that would make life more affordable.
Trump took issue with the idea that the former mayor had much advice to offer the rest of the country. “Why does FoxNews have Bill de Blasio, the Worst Mayor in the History of New York City, on air, ranting and raving like a Lunatic?” he wrote. Of de Blasio’s tenure in New York, Trump added, “He left the City in disgrace, and the damage he caused was incalculable — It has never been the same, and now he’s telling us how to run America.”
Eric Daugherty shared the footage with Trump’s statement displayed alongside de Blasio as he spoke. One viewer replied, “Fox News is not a conservative source anymore.” The viewer blamed the network for “constantly putting liberals and democrats on to criticize Republican politicians and policies.” Trump put his own complaint this way. “FoxNews bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse.”
On the broadcast, the challenge to Democrats came in the clip’s opening seconds. “To answer that question, the truth is, they don’t have policies that will tackle affordability.” De Blasio took up the election returns before he addressed what his party could do about prices. “You are a keen observer of American politics, but I’m going to argue to you that election results is not about polling, it’s not about theoretical.”
De Blasio pointed to two states that Republicans had counted on and drew a distinction between what he saw in Texas and how close he believed Democrats had come in Florida. “We saw two of the four biggest states in this country that have been considered solid red, just either flipped or came damn close in the case of Florida,” he said. “That has changed the 2028 discussion.”
Watch de Blasio make his case on Fox’s election-night panel here:
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When de Blasio returned to affordability, he had a warning for fellow Democrats about what they should do with their gains. “I agree with you 100%. The Democratic Party better produce on affordability, better stay focused on that, not go running off on a bunch of the wrong kind of impeachment and investigation activities, but work on things that matter to the American people.”
“I think they can and they will,” de Blasio continued. He credited the candidates Democrats had fielded that year and the people who ran their campaigns. “I think our party is more unified and more strategic than they’re being given credit for, and this crop of candidates and the way the campaign was run, I think is evidence. But what is fact: Texas and Florida are in play, and California and New York are blue states.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.