NEW YORK _ Ivanka Trump, meet Dante de Blasio.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio wouldn't rule out hiring his son Dante as an official White House adviser if he's ultimately elected president _ just like President Donald Trump did with his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
"I don't think there could be two more different people than the current president's daughter and my son Dante," de Blasio joked Thursday when asked about the prospect.
De Blasio's quixotic presidential campaign hired Dante, a 21-year-old recent Yale grad, as a paid policy analyst last month. He's helping write a campaign platform and prepare his father for debates.
"He has really been a wonderful presence," de Blasio said at an unrelated news conference. "He's a guy who ... worked very hard to get a great education, obviously knows a lot about debating from his very successful debate career and studied with some great folks in college and brings a lot to the table. He's been right in the middle of the research, the debate prep, a lot of things."
De Blasio added: "I don't know what he would do in his future, but I hope he chooses public service because I think he truly has a gift for it."
The mayor also said Thursday that his campaign hasn't yet met fundraising and polling thresholds to qualify for the next primary debates in September. Candidates must earn 2% in four separate national or early state polls, get 130,000 unique donors and 400 individual contributors across at least 20 states.
"We've been working and fighting to get into September; it's not there, I can be honest about that," he said. "We're going to keep working until the final hour because you never know what happens, a bunch of polls still could come in, and all sorts of things could happen online."
The mayor noted that if he doesn't make the September stage, he could meet the thresholds by the next debates in October, which have the same requirements.
De Blasio wouldn't say whether he would drop out of the race if he doesn't make the debates.
"I think this is a wide-open situation ... debates are a part of the picture, a lot of other things too," he said.
