Mayor Bill de Blasio is putting his presidential travel plans temporarily on hold.
"I just felt that for something not governmental, it wasn't appropriate at this time. It's just as simple as that," he said at a news conference in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
With the city mourning a police detective killed in Queens on Tuesday night, the mayor has decided to stay mostly close to home. He is forgoing a planned trip to the key presidential primary state of New Hampshire on Friday, but he will still leave the city Thursday to speak at Harvard University. An aide noted that de Blasio would appear there in his official capacity as mayor. Aides to the mayor say the trip is being rescheduled.
In July 2017, de Blasio faced fierce criticism for his decision to leave the city to attend a political rally in Germany, only one day after a police officer was killed in the Bronx.
De Blasio on Wednesday defended his presidential ambitions, even in the face of headlines ridiculing the idea, such as "Lord Help Us, Bill de Blasio is Still Thinking About Running for President" and "Report Of De Blasio White House Run Draws Laughter, Horror"
His canceled trip suggests the mayor may have a tougher time than U.S. senators running for the White House. As the chief executive of a major city, there are day-to-day crises.
"Would you rather have, as president of the United States, someone who had a less demanding job?" de Blasio said at the press conference.
The mayor suggested it would not be a problem for him to jet around the country campaigning while also running the city.
"If you said, 'Well, we want everyone who runs for president to have a lot of time on their hands and not have a lot of responsibility so they can run for president,' that seems very strange to me," the mayor said. "I think, in fact, you want people who are up to the job."
De Blasio has not declared his intention to run for the White House, but he says he is not ruling it out.
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