A sprawling new interview with Bill de Blasio conducted by New York magazine digs deep into the former New York City mayor’s psyche, attempting to unpack his legacy and what he plans to do with his remaining years on the planet. But all of that might be easy to miss, however, because New York also got him to talk about the infamous incident in which he fumbled a groundhog—causing it to die of internal injuries several days later. Asked if he had any regrets about dropping Staten Island Chuck—or, more accurately, Chuck’s stand-in, Charlotte—de Blasio replied, “Yeah. 100 percent.” The 62-year-old went on to set the record straight, recalling, “I go there and it’s seven in the morning, which means my motor skills are not at their best. I put on these gloves, and they’re like, ‘Here’s a groundhog,’ I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’” Calling the whole affair “idiocy,” de Blasio added, “Why would you want an elected official to hold a groundhog? I don’t know anything about holding groundhogs. So the whole thing is just insane. There’s an original sin here. Don’t hand someone a groundhog, right?”
