(JTA) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his candidacy for president in the 2020 election, calling President Donald Trump a “bully.”
De Blasio, the mayor since 2014, made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube and becomes the 23rd candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
His campaign video dealt solely with domestic issues including raising wages, health care for all, free pre-K for all, caring for migrant families and the Green New Deal.
Along with calling the president a bully, he said “I know how to take him on.”
Shortly after the video dropped, De Blasio appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” where he continued to press the ideas in his video. He is scheduled to visit Iowa on Friday and South Carolina on Saturday.
De Blasio has called supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel “unacceptable” and said he wants more action against anti-Semitic hate crimes.
In recent weeks his emergency order over the measles outbreak in the haredi Orthodox community has led to the temporary closure of nine Jewish schools and yeshivas.
De Blasio received a high level of support from the Jewish community in his mayoral elections in 2013 and 2017.
