Even Zohran Mamdani’s cheerleader Bill de Blasio now says the mayoral front-runner’s policy platform “doesn’t add up.”
The former mayor has supported the Democratic nominee — even sporting a “Hot Girls for Zohran” T-shirt at a recent protest — but reversed course on Mamdani’s proposed $10 billion in socialist freebies in an interview published Tuesday.
“In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial,” de Blasio told The Times of London after apparently finally getting around to reading the fine print on Mamdani’s plan to fund his pie-in-the sky promises, like free buses and universal childcare.
“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,” de Blasio said to the outlet.
Mamdani has proposed cutting billions from the budget and a tax hike on the wealthy and corporations to cover the tab for his to-do list.
The DSA hopeful recently praised de Blasio as his favorite, recent New York City mayor.
It was unclear how de Blasio seemingly just realized what Mamdani had been putting out after penning a fawning op-ed about the Queens assemblyman in September — claiming his “bold, sweeping” agenda would save the city.
“We don’t just need Zohran Mamdani to be our mayor because he has the right ideas, or because they can be achieved,” de Blasio wrote in the op-ed.
De Blasio has long been an ally of Mayor Eric Adams and even gave him a heads-up that the op-ed was coming, telling the sitting mayor he would have been in his corner if stuck with the Democratic Party line.
Adams just recently backed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s independent bid for mayor and was out on the campaign trail stumping for him on Tuesday.
Calls to de Blasio were not returned.
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