The truth behind the Times's de Blasio blunder

More information has emerged about the Times’s interview-that-wasn’t with former New York mayor Bill de Blasio… and it’s even more bizarre than first thought.

Earlier this week, the paper was forced to take down an ‘interview’ with de Blasio in which the former New York mayor poured scorn on the frontrunner to take the role next month, Zohran Mamdani. The article was removed when it turned out the interviewee wasn’t de Blasio at all, but was widely reported to be an impostor.

“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,” the Thunderer’s man in the Big Apple, Bevan Hurley, quoted the former mayor as saying. “In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial.”

But in a new twist, it has emerged the man quoted was sort of de Blasio – just not the de Blasio.

Hurley apparently sent an email to who he thought was the two-term mayor, but turned out to be a 59-year-old wine importer from Long Island, New York state, called Bill DeBlasio. DeBlasio, apparently unperturbed at being canvassed unsolicited by a journalist from the UK, was more than happy to give his view on his near-namesake.

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“I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio told the US website Semafor in an interview apparently conducted through his Ring doorbell. “So I just gave him my opinion.”

Hurley’s email said he was writing “an article looking at Zohran Mamdani’s policy plans and their estimated costs,” adding that he “would greatly appreciate your insights on Mr Mandani’s ambitious agenda, potential obstacles, and whether the sums add up.” Using ChatGPT, DeBlasio formulated a response, telling the website: “It was all in good fun. I never thought it would make it to print.” He said, in a rather naive assumption of how the British media works, he thought the reporter would “have all his people check it out”.

The Times has since remedied its error, taking down the story and issuing a statement saying: “The Times has apologised to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.”

DeBlasio, meanwhile, said he met the mayor once, at a 2016 New York Mets baseball game. He said he was asked by security guards, who couldn’t believe the coincidence, “Hey, do you want to meet the real Bill de Blasio?”

“How bad is it having the same last name as me?” DeBlasio recalls the mayor asking him. He responded: “Dude, you’re killing me.” Hurley might empathise.