De Blasio's Review Of 2nd Mayoral Debate: 'Not Impressed'

NEW YORK CITY — After a rancorous mayoral debate in which some of his would-be successors gave him a failing grade, Mayor Bill de Blasio returned the favor.

“Sadly, I don’t think it was much of a debate,” he said Thursday. “I don’t think it shed a lot of light.”

The din of yelling from Wednesday night's second mayoral debate still reverberated across New York City as de Blasio fielded question after question about the affair.

Hizzoner cracked he was "in recovery" after watching the eight candidates — Eric Adams, Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia, Ray McGuire, Dianne Morales, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang — spar.

When candidate weren't taking shots at each other — Adams and Yang had a particularly heated exchange — they took aim at de Blasio.

Only Yang said he'd welcome de Blasio's endorsement.

De Blasio brushed aside the implicit rebuke from Garcia and Wiley, who both worked under him, by calling them newly minted "politicians." He said no candidates provided a "particularly compelling vision."

“I think the people of New York City deserve to hear a truly thoughtful vision of how we’re going to move forward after the biggest crisis in our history," he said.

De Blasio faulted candidates for floating proposals his administration had already done. And, while he avoided directly criticizing candidates by name, he took exception at Yang's swipes against his use of federal stimulus money.

"The fact that one of the candidates is saying we should not spend stimulus dollars when in fact the entire idea is to spend stimulus dollars, that's why it's called 'stimulus,'" he said. "And that we're spending all the money now when anyone who's looked at the law understands that most dollars come in different tranches over time — I mean ... I get pandering, I really do, but it'd be nice if people would just get their fact straight and those weren't facts."

After being told Yang was holding a campaign event at the Park Slope YMCA — de Blasio's preferred gym — the mayor said candidates need to show they have knowledge of the city and how it works.

"You know, again, that's why I was not impressed last night by the totality of what I saw from all the candidates," de Blasio said. "This is serious stuff — we're coming out of pandemic, we're trying to bring back the greatest city in the world. It would be nice if people were to get a little more serious."

The mayoral primary is June 22.