Weeks after he sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity for an extremely odd and surprisingly friendly hour-long interview, New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio, in his bid to woo campaign donors in a last-ditch effort to stay in the 2020 race, appealed to viewers of Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight for support.
Towards the end of Thursday night’s multi-segment interview—which bounced between highly combative and cordially respectful—host Tucker Carlson asked the long-shot presidential hopeful if he planned on staying in the race, noting that earlier this week, de Blasio suggested he would end his struggling campaign in early October if he didn’t make next month’s debates.
“Yeah,” de Blasio declared. “I said very clearly my goal is to get into those next debates and that’s a month away before that cutoff period and I’m going to get ideas out there like our discussion we’re having on automation.”
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The mayor went on to promote his campaign website and asked Carlson’s viewers to help donate to his cause, saying “even a $1 donation helps get me into the next debate.”
According to the New York Times, de Blasio has only raised $1.1 million from a little more than 6,600 donors. Besides polling qualifications, he would need to have at least 130,000 unique donors and a minimum of 400 donors in at least 20 states. The NYC mayor did not qualify for this month’s Democratic primary debate.
Carlson ended the interview by asking de Blasio about reports he only worked seven hours in New York City last month and whether he thought he could oversee a city and run for president at the same time before applauding the mayor for coming on his show.
“I’ll tell you what,” the Fox host said. “What puts you in good graces, [with] me anyway, having the stones to come on this show. Good for you. I respect that.”
While de Blasio may have drawn praise from the conservative primetime star, one wonders just how much his latest Fox News appearance will resonate with the liberals and Democrats he needs to appeal to in order to keep his presidential aspirations alive.
The mayor, for instance, took quite a bit of online heat from the left for deciding to go on Carlson’s show, since the Fox News star is currently dealing with an advertiser boycott due to his inflammatory anti-immigration rhetoric and recently sparked renewed outrage for saying white supremacy is a “hoax.”
“Think about all the advertisers that removed ads/refuse to advertiser on Tucker's show given that it's basically a white supremacy show,” Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone tweeted. “And now ask yourself, what the fuck is Bill de Blasio doing.”
“Gonna be hard for the mayor to conjure a compelling reason for lending Tucker’s white-power hour the dignity of his office,” Planned Parenthood Action’s Greg Greene wrote.
Noticeably, the mayor did not confront Carlson once on his controversial and offensive remarks during their lengthy conversation.
