Turns out, the Times of London reporter Bevan Hurley hadn't talked to the former New York City mayor. The actual former mayor put out a statement on social media saying the quotes were not his, and that he never spoke to Hurley. The paper quickly yanked the story from its website and said it had personally apologized to de Blasio.
I'm Bill DeBlasio. I've always been Bill DeBlasio, he said from Florida. I never once said I was the mayor. [The journalist] never addressed me as the mayor. So I just gave him my opinion. I could have corrected him, he added. It was all in good fun. I never thought it would make it to print.
"This is profoundly personal for me. I was at the White House the other day and the president of the United States turned to me, and he met Dante a few months ago, and he said that Dante reminded him of what he looked like as a teenager. He said, 'I know you see this crisis through a very personal lens.'"
