Bill de Blasio: Billionaires are the problem, not the solution

Mayor Bill de Blasio railed against billionaires in politics Monday after he was asked about a prospective presidential run by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

“The people of this country are not going to turn to a billionaire to solve problems that were created largely by billionaires,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said in Manhattan. “They’re just not.”

Voters “do not want to see the wealthy and the powerful continue to gain power,” he said, adding that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is another billionaire who shouldn’t be in the White House.

De Blasio tried to tempered his criticism of Bloomberg — a media mogul who is reportedly mulling a 2016 run an as independent — by commending some of the policies he enacted in his 12 years at City Hall. But Bloomberg was not “focused on income inequality in his career in government,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio touted his choice for president, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for saying “the system is rigged against working people” and championing higher wages and improved benefits.

He did not acknowledge that Clinton is a multimillionaire.

A Bloomberg spokesman declined to comment. Representatives for Clinton and Trump did not respond to requests for comment.