Mayor de Blasio said Monday that “the world has changed” to explain why he can’t commit to serving a full second term — as he promised two years ago.
During a debate in the 2017 campaign, de Blasio was asked if he’d serve out his term if re-elected.
He looked straight at the camera and declared, “I will serve for 4 full years.”
But he told CNN on that Sunday that he won’t rule out a run for The White House in 2020. His term as mayor ends on Jan. 1, 2022.
“I also see an extraordinarily dynamic environment where we’re seeing challenges we never saw before, we’re seeing dangers we never saw before — it’s a time when it makes sense to rethink what’s going on and how to address it,” he said at a press conference in Coney Island on expanding ferry service.
“So I think we can say the world has changed a lot in the last couple years. In the meantime my statement is literal — just not ruling [a run for president] out.”
De Blasio, who last week announced plans to travel nationally in coming months to share his progressive ideas on expanding health care and mandating paid vacation at private firms, said he hasn’t had conversations about setting up out-of-state operations tied to the 2020 presidential race.