De Blasio Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Mayor de Blasio's Defense of Working People Agenda on 'Hannity' Highest-Rated Interview of Any 2020 Democratic Candidate

de Blasio advocates for fair tax rate, pro-choice policies, Green New Deal in front of 3.3 million viewers during hour-long appearance

NEW YORK—Showing there's nowhere he won't go to spread his message of putting working people first, Mayor de Blasio sat for an hour-long primetime interview Wednesday with FOX News' Sean Hannity. de Blasio and Hannity repeatedly sparred over the Mayor's progressive agenda, including his plan to "tax the hell" out of the rich, his support for immigrants and abortion rights, and New York City's Green New Deal.

de Blasio's appearance on ‘Hannity' Wednesday night drew 3.3 million viewers, making it the highest-rated one-on-one interview of any 2020 Democratic candidate. It's also the highest-rated appearance on FOX News of any 2020 Democratic candidate. de Blasio is the first Democratic candidate of the 2020 cycle to appear on ‘Hannity,' where viewers are rarely presented with a progressive point of view. More of his interview will appear on the show at a later date.

Excerpts from de Blasio's interview are available below, and his interview in its entirety can be watched here:

On FOX News:

"It is a charade, stop it. What you are doing and what your network does too often is try to distract people… I agree you're not a monolith, but too much of the time what FOX and News Corp do is try to take people's minds off of the fact that they are being screwed economically by the one percent."

On Higher Taxes for the Wealthy:

"Do you think right now your viewers feel that it's OK that the wealthy have as much as they have and pay as little in taxes? Do you think it's OK that big corporations pay nothing in taxes? Do you think that's OK?... I'm not taking away your work, but the rich have gotten richer for forty years and paid less and less in taxes, corporations in America paying nothing in taxes, that's not America, that's not America where the chosen few get all the money."

On the Minimum Wage:

"Wait a minute, talk about people trying to support their family. You don't think folks who are working hard should get $15 minimum wage?... This is what the labor movement fought for years. And did something decent for people—"

Hannity: "You said the following: that the money's in the wrong hands and you want to tax the hell out of people—"

"I do, and people should go to taxthehell.com and they can get all the information about my tax plan which is the most aggressive [plan in the race]."

On Abortion:

"I respect that this is your job, I have a job to do too. Your job is to try and make this sometimes a cartoon and… I'm trying to tell you that this is about a woman's right to choose which is under attack right now… Women make this choice, it's a sacred choice for women."

On the Green New Deal:

"Sean, the status quo is not working. The earth is in more and more endangered. Sandy, you saw what Sandy did Hurricane Sandy in New York City. Look at it we've $40 plus billions in damage. Thousands of lives lost. We have to change… The bottom line is [renewables] are working all over the world and if we don't change quick — we are in a lot of danger. I care about what's going to happen to the future generations and I do not like what I see. These weather events do not mistakes, Sean. This stuff, flooding, the wild fires, it is happening because of global warming. We can't go on this way."