New York Mayor Bill de Blasio finally announced Friday that he is backing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's bid in the 2016 presidential election.
De Blasio said that Clinton was the candidate that was best suited to go to Washington and follow through on enacting liberal policies to combat income inequality.
"The candidate who I believe can fundamentally address income inequality effectively, the candidate who has the right vision and the right experience to get the job done is Hillary Clinton," he said during an early morning appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
His announcement comes six months after de Blasio, who worked as Clinton's campaign manager during her Senate campaign in 2000, said that he wasn't ready to endorse the ex-secretary of state's bid for the White House.
"I think she's one of the most qualified people to ever run for this office and, by the way, thoroughly vetted," de Blasio said at the time. "But we need to see the substance."
He maintained his stance through the following months, even skipping Clinton's campaign launch on Roosevelt Island, N.Y., puzzling political analysts and frustrating many within the Democrat party.
De Blasio soon moved into making himself a national figure on the fight against income equality and founded the Progressive Agenda Committee, but polls indicated that many New Yorkers felt that de Blasio was prioritizing the national over the municipal, prompting his advisers in City Hall to urge de Blasio to bite the bullet and endorse Clinton, according to KSL.
He finally did so Friday, and when asked what prompted the change, he said, "I have seen her vision and her platform develop over five months. I'm extremely pleased with what she's put on the table but she has a history of fighting on issues that convinces me."
De Blasio also offered a defense for the democratic front-runner.
"There's a lot of spine there and a lot of steel there," he said. "She has said what she believes in. This is a very sharp, progressive platform and she has the ability to follow through on it."
