Times of London retracts story in which Bill de Blasio imposter criticizes Mamdani's policies

The Times of London apologized and retracted a story after a reporter was duped in an interview with someone posing as former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The UK Times' article was taken down an hour and 30 minutes after it was published, the New York Post reported. The story claimed that de Blasio said the math of Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani's proposed plan for free buses and universal childcare doesn't add up.

“In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial,” de Blasio was quoted as saying in the article.

“While the ambition is admirable, the cost estimates — reportedly exceeding $7 billion annually — rest on optimistic assumptions… about eliminating waste and raising revenue through new taxes.”

After the article's publication, de Blasio told The Post that the “story is entirely false and fabricated.”

“I never talked to that reporter and I never said those things,” de Blasio said. “I believe in Zohran and his vision, which I’ve said publicly many times.”

“I’m demanding via my tweet that they take down the story immediately,” he added, referring to a statement he posted on X regarding the article.

Shortly afterward, the Times' article page showed an “error” message, reading, “Sorry, we can’t find the page you are looking for.”

“The Times has apologized to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor,” the Times' spokesperson said.