‘I never once said I was the mayor!’: The Times of London humiliated after interviewing the wrong Bill De Blasio

The New York Mayoral race is one of the most talked-about political stories of the year, with young Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani apparently about to triumph over his cadaverous sex pest rival Andrew Cuomo to run one of the biggest cities in the world.

Anything about this race is generating traffic for news websites, so when The Times of London reporter Bevan Hurley thought he’d scored a bombshell quote from former NYC mayor Bill de Blasio slamming Mamdani’s economic policies, he must have popped open the champagne.

De Blasio has been a steadfast supporter of Mamdani, so his suddenly deciding that Mamdani’s “math doesn’t hold up” and that he is making “optimistic assumptions” about tax revenue had all the makings of a scoop. The story was soon online and generating traffic.

Then Bill de Blasio saw it and had… some notes:

I want to be 100% clear:
The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated.
It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled.
I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things.
Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views. https://t.co/I65e8UV6tm

— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) October 28, 2025

The Times of London rapidly backpedaled, claiming they’d been “misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.” The story was taken down, and an apology was made. Now the truth of what happened has emerged and, frankly, it’s hilarious.

“I had the name first. I’m not changing it”

As it turns out, Bevan Hurley did indeed interview a Bill de Blasio, but not the Bill de Blasio. The interviewee was actually Bill DeBlasio, a 59-year-old Long Island wine importer who had been sent an email asking him for his thoughts on Mamdani’s policies. Well, if they’re asking…

As DeBlasio explained:

“I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor. So I just gave him my opinion.”

Incidentally, DeBlasio has some thoughts about the way de Blasio writes his name. In an interview apparently conducted through a Ring doorbell, DeBlasio said, “low-class Italians use a little d”. He may be right to have a grudge, as a past profile suggests DeBlasio has been dealing with annoying emails pestering him with questions about his namesake for years:

 “Sometimes I send nice emails, like: ‘Hey, I’m doing the best I can. Maybe you can give me some advice; what should I do? Other times I say, ‘You’re really starting to annoy me. I don’t have time to answer these emails.’”

So if it’s this annoying, why doesn’t DeBlasio simply change his name? “I had the name first. I’m not changing it”. Fair enough, can’t argue with that!

Meanwhile, De Blasio has slammed the newspaper and its reporter for their lax standards, saying that it beggars belief they wouldn’t check they had the right guy.

This explanation and apology doesn’t add up, unless a previously well-respected outlet has abandoned meaningful journalistic standards and ethics. Did their conservative bent cloud their judgment? Did someone cleverly lay a trap for them? Or was this just shoddy work by a journalist and his editors who were supposed to maintain quality control?

I’m a journalist and know all too well the feeling of realizing you’ve made a mistake and knowing thousands of people are reading it. But I’ve never screwed up on anything close to this level… One thing’s for sure – I wouldn’t want to be Bevan Hurley right now.