Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac Dover.

When I have reached out to other big city mayors and national progressives to ask about you.

Yes.

They have, by and large, not wanted to talk.

Oh, my God.

Why don't they want to talk about it? What is the issue?

What is the secret that they're hiding?

Today's guest, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

De Blasio was just elected to a second term as mayor with 66% of the vote, and basically

no real opposition.

I've known him, though, going back 12 years.

The first time I did a real interview with him was back at the beginning of my own time

covering politics in New York.

After a forum for all the people running for, city council speaker.

In New York City, there's always a weird and crowded race every four years, and they do forums and

public events, and it's crazy. I don't remember much about the interview we did, but I do remember

that one of his aides told me he'd be hungry after the big speaking event. So watch out for the falling crumbs

since he's like 6'6 and he was eating a bag of chips the whole time. The relationship between

us has had intense moments since then. Probably most of all, when I did a big investigative

series of articles into a group called the Working Families Party back in 2009, which de Blasio

was part of the founding of, and which you'll hear

him talk a little bit about in this interview. There are a coalition of unions and progressive

...