NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Bill de Blasio penned an op-ed in The Atlantic this week with advice for President Joe Biden on winning over the American public, with the former mayor acknowledging that “when it comes to being unpopular, I’m unfortunately somewhat of an expert.”
In the op-ed published Tuesday and titled “Joe Biden Can Learn From My Mistakes,” de Blasio shares advice for the Democratic president, whose poll numbers have sunk ahead of the 2022 midterm elections in November.
“I made my fair share of mistakes,” de Blasio confesses in the op-ed. “President Biden and the Democratic Party should learn from them.”
De Blasio said he was “clearly” on the side of New Yorkers when he became mayor in 2013 and won reelection in 2017. But by 2021 “my popularity had tanked,” he wrote.
“Why? I failed to give New Yorkers a clear sense of where I was taking them,” de Blasio admitted.
The eight-year mayor said he lost his connection with New Yorkers and failed to lay out in plain terms the policies he was proposing and an “overarching vision for the future.”
He said he was faced with “crisis after crisis” during his time in office and responded with targeted initiatives but that the message of his overall goal—to make “New York better and fairer for everyone”—got lost in the details.
De Blasio believes Biden is “making the same mistake,” despite a busy first year in office. He warned that the Democrats’ success in the midterms is on the line.
“As the mayor of New York City, I had one of the loudest megaphones in the country, and I failed to use it properly,” de Blasio wrote, adding that Biden needs to use his much larger megaphone to “show that he truly empathizes with everyday Americans” on issues important to them like inflation, public safety and affordable health care.
The former mayor, who launched an unsuccessful bid for president in 2019, said a clear vision and Biden’s “warm, positive voice” may be what Democrats need to get their agenda back on track.
Biden’s approval ratings have taken a hit since he took office 15 months ago. The president even joked about his low poll numbers at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night.
“I’m really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have," Biden said to a D.C. Hilton ballroom filled with members of the media.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday found Biden has a 42% overall approval rating, with 52% disapproving of the job he’s doing. It was a small improvement from the 37% who approved and 55% who disapproved in late February.
A Harvard Institute of Politics poll released Monday also found Biden is losing popularity among young adults, with just 41% approving of his job performance, down from 59% last spring.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll found Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats when it comes to handling the economy and inflation, which hit a 40-year high this spring. However, Democrats still hold a slight advantage ahead of the midterms, with the poll finding 46% of voters would support a Democratic candidate, while 45% would back a Republican candidate.
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