De Blasio's Debate Tactics: Interrupt, Get Personal, Slam Beto

NEW YORK — He's usually center stage at home, but Mayor Bill de Blasio found himself sidelined at the first Democratic presidential debate Wednesday night.

The mayor was asked few direct questions and spoke for fewer than six minutes from his spot at the far left of the Miami stage. Only Washington Gov. Jay Inslee talked less.

But that didn't stop de Blasio from landing a few blows by jumping into the conversation unprompted. He went after former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, stood out as one of two candidates supporting single-payer health care and used difficult personal stories to underscore talking points.

While it's uncertain how big a splash he made nationally, de Blasio's performance impressed some of his frequent critics back home.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called it "not too shabby." City Councilman Joe Borelli, one of the chamber's three Republicans, said the mayor did well because he was "unafraid to give controversial answers and sounds genuine in his delivery."

"The rest are scared of saying something they could potentially be criticized for at this early stage," Borelli said on Twitter. "It’s a smart tactic for a 1% poller."

Interrupting To Get A Word In

The debate moderators only asked de Blasio three direct questions, but he also interrupted other candidates three times to get some words in. In two of those instances he targeted O'Rourke, who logged the second-most speaking time of the group.

De Blasio first slammed the ex-Texas congressman for wanting to maintain a private health insurance marketplace. The mayor and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren were the only two candidates on stage to express support for scrapping private insurance and implementing government-run health care.

"Private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans when you talk about the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses," de Blasio told O'Rourke. "It's not working. How can you defend a system that's not working?"

The mayor jumped in a second time to discuss immigration issues before once again going after O'Rourke on American intervention in foreign affairs.

Getting Personal

De Blasio employed some personal stories in the debate that he does not often bring up at home. He said he had to talk with his son, Dante, who is biracial, about how "he has to take special caution" in his interactions with the police. The mayor noted that he was the only candidate on stage who is "raising a black son in America." (New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is black, but does not have children.)

The moment hearkened back to de Blasio's remarks on the night in 2014 that a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the cop who killed Eric Garner, Politico New York noted. It also called to mind his 2013 campaign ad featuring Dante, which was credited with helping de Blasio win the mayoral election that year.

De Blasio also brought up his father's suicide in to make a point about getting congressional authorization for wars. The mayor said he personally knew "the cost of war," as his dad fought in the World War II Battle Of Okinawa and "came home with scars, both physical and emotional."

"He spiraled downward and he ultimately took his own life," he said. "And that battle didn't kill him, but that war did."

Touting Record At Home

De Blasio has made his case as an executive with a concrete record of progressive accomplishments. He brought up some of them in the debate — a first question about how to address income inequality gave him a chance to tout New York's $15 minimum wage, his universal pre-kindergarten initiative and what he called "universal health care." (He was likely referring to the city's expansion of health services for the uninsured.)

He also used his anecdote about Dante to pivot into a point about policing. He said New York City has driven down crime while bringing "police and community together."

"If we're going to stop these shootings, we want to get these guns off the street, we have to have a very different relationship between our police and our community," de Blasio said.