With supportive City University students in the audience of a NY1 town hall meeting, Mayor de Blasio last night swung away at the gigantic political piñata named Donald Trump.

Talking about Trump is a welcome relief for the mayor who’s currently dealing with the headache of Joseph Ponte, the city’s correction commissioner whose hobby last year seemed to be driving to Maine in his city-owned car.

While de Blasio did address questions about Ponte’s road trips, his focus – and NY1’s – was on the president’s first 100 days in office. And the mayor also held out the possibility that he could attend an event in Manhattan with the president on Thursday when he returns to New York City for the first time since he was inaugurated.

“If they invite me in my role as mayor, I would respect that, even though I have real differences with the president," de Blasio told NY1 Political Anchor Errol Louis. "If it's the kind of situation that is a civic event, if you will, and about more universal values, of course I would participate,’’ said the mayor of Thursday’s event that’s honoring a World War II battle.

The president wasn’t always on the chopping block, though. Republican City Councilman Joe Borrelli, an early Trump supporter, explained why he backed the president, even getting praise later from some of the more liberal-leaning students.

Baruch College Dean David Birdsell smartly urged the students to find an intelligent news source that they didn’t agree with and regularly read it so that they could better understand someone else’s point of view.

With trenchant reports from NY1’s Josh Robin and Bobby Cuza and Grace Rauh fielding questions from the students in the audience, the meeting was worth watching. If you missed it, here’s a link.

Errol Louis smartly pointed out that if you care about what’s happening at the national level, we have a slew of local elections headed our way this fall. Stay tuned.

 

Bob Hardt