Amid a push to heighten his national profile, the mayor of New York City on Sunday declined to rule out a possible presidential run in 2020.
Speculation over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s future ambitions intensified this week after he rolled out a slew of new, liberal policies and used a recent speech to blast the distribution of wealth in the U.S., striking a similar tone as other potential candidates such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats.
But while de Blasio tries to brandish his liberal credentials, he remains “focused on the job” of running the nation’s largest city.
[Read: 45 Democrats jostling to challenge Trump in 2020]
“I want to push this whole party and I want to inform this debate in this country about the fact that we could go a lot farther. We could be a lot bolder,” de Blasio told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Dozens of Democrats are expected to try to unseat Trump in the upcoming 2020 election. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, and others have already announced their candidacy.
When asked whether he would support New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in her expected presidential run, de Blasio said he won’t “talk about hypothetical situations.”
Defending his recent comment that wealth in New York City is “just in the wrong hands,” de Blasio condemned the GOP-led tax cuts as padding the pocketbooks of rich individuals at the expense of poorer people.
“Government policies gave the 1 percent every conceivable leg up. This was not by accident,” he said. “Democrats and progressives need to be blunt about this. And people will appreciate that bluntness.”
