In the famed words of DJ Khaled, “Another one.”
Another Democratic candidate, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, has decided to toss his hat into the already crowded field, becoming the 23rd Democrat to do so.
Why de Blasio has decided to join at such a time is anyone’s guess, but as NPR notes, now he will have to find a way to stand out in the oversaturated field in a race which many top Democrats and allies have cautioned him against entering.
The news site notes that a former aid of de Blasio’s Rebecca Katz stated on a New York City podcast back in February that while she thinks his message is “100%” right, “I’m just not sure he’s the right messenger.
Others told Politico on background that his campaign was “idiotic” and “f–king insane.”
His own wife, Chirlane McCray, mused in an interview with POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast in February, that her husband would “be a great president” but conceded that “the timing is not exactly right.” About a week later, she attempted to walk back on that statement.
Still, the mayor appears confident, despite trailing in polls.
“It’s not where you start,” he told the New York Times back in January. “It’s where you end.”
And so, on Thursday morning, he launched his first video for his presidential candidacy titled “Working People First.”
In the video, de Blasio directly confronts Trump’s presidency quipping, “I’m a New Yorker, I’ve known Trump’s a bully for a long time. This is not news to me or anyone else here, and I know how to take him on.”
“Don’t back down in a face of a bully. Confront him. Take him on.”
He went on to describe the ways in which he directly countered Trumps actions as president, from protecting families at the border that were being separated under the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, to launching his own version of a Green New Deal for New York City when the president backed away from the Paris Agreement.
“Donald Trump must be stopped. I’ve beaten him before and I will do it again,” de Blasio said.
“As president, I will take on the wealthy, I will take on the big corporations,” he continued. “I will not rest until this government serves working people.”