Campaign 2020: Comedians Descend On City Hall To Mock Bill De Blasio's Sinking Presidential Dreams
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Bill de Blasio's dreams of living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has suffered some major setbacks.
Failure to drum up support, even from longtime allies has exiled him from the next debate and that's not even the half of it.
MORE: Campaign 2020: Bill De Blasio Fails To Qualify For Next Debate, 10 Democrats Advance
It may be one of the existential questions of the 2020 presidential election season – When comedians show up at your door to mock your lust for higher office has your campaign officially become a joke?
"In an effort to encourage de Blasio to come back here to City Hall to do some work we are going to change the name of the building… from City Hall to Iowa," Brooklyn comedian Jason Selvig mocked.
Selvig and Davram Stiefler think de Blasio is just plain "delusio" if he thinks he'll be president, so why not play into the delusion.
Let the mayor come back home and "think" he's still in "Iowa."
"Perhaps people could come to Iowa and tell you how tell you how tired they are of the city's crumbling subway system," Stiefler said.
The pair say they want to take the "p" out of president and run de Blasio "for resident."
Funny? Tongue in cheek? Sure, but it also comes at a difficult time for the popularity-challenged mayor.
He failed to make the thresholds for the next debate, just as another fellow New Yorker Kirsten Gillibrand pulled the plug on her 2020 campaign.
"It's important to know when it's not your time," the senator said.
Political pundits say it's a message the mayor should take to heart.
"Bill de Blasio, if he had any brains would say the following, 'Senator Gillibrand I'm following you and I'm coming home,'" political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.
Is he taking that advice? Nope.
Even after his decidedly "unorthodox" plea to his allies in the Satmar Hasidic community to support his campaign fell short – really short.
The mayor asked them to find 10,000 donors. So far they've found 670, bringing in a grand total of $868.
"I just want to know how you feel about Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign?" CBS23's Marica Kramer asked a Queens resident.
"I like him as a mayor and I think he's a good person, but I don't think he's presidential material," John Fulton said.
"I think he should be in New York and do his job," Alvin Snadowsky of Manhattan added.
"I don't think you can make president until you know how to make New York… what about taking care of New York housing, transit. New York is not as best it can be, I kind of miss Bloomberg," Pia Walker added.
CBS2 asked team de Blasio if the mayor would consider calling it quits, but all a spokesperson talked about was his upcoming events.
He's in Las Vegas Thursday, Los Angeles Friday, and New Hampshire next week.
One place he won't be is on the debate stage in Houston on Sept. 12.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker did make the cut, as did the relatively unknown New York businessman Andrew Yang.
