Mayor de Blasio brushes off criticism about awkward joke
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio is brushing off criticism about an awkward joke he made with Hillary Clinton during a charity event.
It happened Saturday at the "Inner Circle" show.
"I was running on CP time," de Blasio said in the performance.
"I don't like jokes like that Bill," said Leslie Odom, Jr. of Broadway's "Hamilton".
"Cautious politician time," Hillary Clinton said in the show.
Mayor de Blasio was responding to why he was slow to endorse Clinton for president.
His response was a play on the phrase "colored people time" based on a stereotype about blacks being late.
"It was clearly a staged show, a scripted show, and the whole idea was to do the counterintuitive and say 'cautious politician's time'. Every actor involved, including Hillary Clinton and Leslie Odom, Jr. thought it was a joke on a different convention, that was the whole idea of it," Mayor de Blasio said.
De Blasio said people criticizing the joke missed the point.
