A man who was mistaken by a reporter for the Times of London to be former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave details this week on how a story came to be published attributing his quotes to the city’s former top executive.
“I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio told the news outlet Semafor of his email exchange with the journalist who authored the piece. “So I just gave him my opinion.”
The Times of London published a story earlier this week on New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s policy plans that attributed quotes to the former mayor but actually came from Bill De Blasio — a Long Island man who Semafor reported has an email address matching the politician’s name.
After the story published, the former New York City mayor said the piece was “entirely false and fabricated.”
“It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled,” he said. “I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”
De Blasio, who was succeeded by sitting Mayor Eric Adams, endorsed Mamdani for the post earlier this year.
The Times story has since been taken down, while the outlet issued a statement saying, “our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.”
“I could have corrected him,” De Blasio told Semafor, saying he used ChatGPT to create a response blasting Mamdani’s plans. “It was all in good fun.”
He added, “I never thought it would make it to print.”
