De Blasio imposter hoodwinks British paper

Of all the people to go as for Halloween, why would you choose Bill de Blasio, an undistinguished Mayor of New York and flame-out 2020 presidential candidate? 

That’s a plausible explanation for the recent howler from the Times of London – Great Britain’s newspaper of record – whose veteran US correspondent Bevan Hurley quoted a man claiming to be de Blasio on his misgivings about Zohran Mamdani.

“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,” this total imposter told Mr. Hurley, with strange eloquence. “In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial.” With a seasoned newsman apparently under his spell, the fake de Blasio could have plausibly put any words he wanted to into the former mayor’s mouth – like, say, an endorsement of George Wallace. How strange that he limited himself to a thoroughly centrist spiel on fiscal credibility. 

All the same, Hurley must have thought he’d happened upon the scoop of the year: a left-populist denounces another left-populist days before an election. Hence, perhaps, the haste to get the story out, which duly appeared on the Times website at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. 

The real de Blasio was indignant. On X he declared that he was “appalled” by the story, which was “an absolute violation of journalistic ethics.” Tell Cockburn what you really think! The Mamdani campaign now seems more or less unstoppable, hence this slightly frantic attempt on de Blasio’s part to prove his loyalty to the candidate he’d endorsed.

Hurley’s article was quickly deleted (though an archived version remains online). Cockburn notes that it’s traditionally been easy for foreign correspondents in America to bluff their way around on the strength of their accent; we may have just witnessed the first ever case of the opposite.