Bill de Blasio, the mayor of Donald Trump’s hometown on Saturday joined critics labeling the businessman a racist, and de Blasio doesn’t think it’s a close call.
“I didn’t realize this was in question,” the Democratic mayor tweeted Saturday. “Behaves like a racist, speaks like a racist … of course @RealDonaldTrump is a racist.”
Trump, the real estate developer-turned-candidate, has received backlash for comments throughout his campaign that include dubbing undocumented Mexican immigrants “rapists,” calling for a wall along the southern border, and banning Muslims entering the U.S.
On Friday, singer John Legend got into a Twitter fight with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who questioned the motives of the protesters who showed up to a Chicago rally in the thousands on Friday and caused Trump to postpone the event.
“@DonaldJTrumpJr I think they were protesting your racist father. This isn’t complicated,” Legend responded to Trump Jr.’s message.
De Blasio jumped into the fray, siding with Leged while offering a prescription of his own.
“The solution isn’t complicated, either. Tax the super rich, reform Wall Street, create good jobs with good wages,” said de Blasio, who supporters Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The solution isn’t complicated, either. Tax the super rich, reform Wall Street, create good jobs with good wages. https://t.co/QOkJxOz81s
— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 12, 2016
“The answer to proto-fascism is better democracy,” De Blasio said in a follow-up tweet. “The answer to economic fear and insecurity is actual re-distribution of wealth.”
De Blasio and Trump have a history of condemning one another.
In late February, Trump balked at the opportunity to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who urged his supporters to vote for Trump.
“It is 2016, in the United States of America, and Donald Trump cannot disavow the KKK,” de Blasio said. “This is unbelievable. It is disgusting. It is beyond the pale.” Trump later said he had previously disavowed the Klan. He blamed his failure on a bad earpiece during an interview.
In December, de Blasio blasted Trump for advocating a registry of Muslim-Americans in an effort to address Islamic extremism, adding that Trump was falling right into “the [Islamic State] game plan.”
“What he’s saying is corrosive to our democratic values. It’s dangerous. And I’ll call him out and I think more and more people are saying … it’s not entertaining anymore, it’s dangerous,” de Blasio told CNN.
He also called Trump a “blowhard” in November, which prompted Trump to tweet that de Blasio is the “worst mayor in the U.S.”
Afterwards, de Blasio retracted his “blowhard” remark, saying the word “minimized the danger” of Trump’s arguments.
“I quickly realized I had to change my language and start saying that what he’s doing is dangerous. And a lot of other voices have come to the same conclusion,” de Blasio told WOR 710 in New York.
