Tuesday's mayoral primary is looming, and Mayor Bill de Blasio is keeping up his appearances, but not in the typical campaign style. It comes as the presumptive Republican nominee is launching her first TV ad. NY1's Josh Robin reports.
The mayor's day begins at a young health care company geared towards women.
"I love the phrase 'group of scrappy outsiders,'" de Blasio said.
Unlike his last primary race, it's a phrase that can no longer describe Bill de Blasio. Now, the incumbent is an overwhelming favorite.
Friday's buttoned-up schedule reflects that. He talked job growth and signed bills. There were no subway riders to gladhand.
And four years after taking questions from basically anyone, this time, he played opponent of both the Trump administration and the press before a select group of so-called ethnic media reporters.
"Sometimes, the mainstream media leaves out a lot of the stories of the communities represented here and doesn't speak to their realities and their needs," de Blasio said.
Despite his advantage in polls against his Democratic challengers, de Blasio on Friday also scooped up another nearly $250,000 in more public matching funds. His total is nearly $3 million.
Speaking of a self-billed scrappy outsider: with a TV spot, Republican Nicole Malliotakis, well, jabs at de Blasio's work habits.
"Now I'm taking on Bill de Blasio because the city that never sleeps needs a mayor that can stay awake," Malliotakis said.
De Blasio isn't much responding personally to the Staten Island assemblywoman. His focus is projecting himself as a progressive who gets results who also isn't afraid of a president deeply unpopular in New York.
"The fact that this guy has nine lives politically doesn't change the reality," de Blasio said. "He has said and done absolutely reprehensible things, and they must be confronted."
Later, the mayor signed bills on alleged police misconduct, employment needs for jail inmates, food waste and starting an office of nightlife.
He also announced a commission to look at how to handle controversial monuments around the city. Among the boldface names: singer and activist Harry Belafonte, and historian Jon Meacham.