Taking an opportunistic shot at the Democratic primary frontrunner, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called former Vice President Joe Biden's support for the 1994 crime bill a "huge mistake."
"That crime bill was one of the foundations of mass incarceration and a very painful era in our nation's history," De Blasio told CNN's "State of the Union." "[Biden and] anyone else has to be accountable for every vote they take and what's on their record, and I think that was a huge mistake."
Biden had denied being responsible for mass incarceration, saying the bill helped him take on the National Rifle Association, a claim Mayor de Blasio rejected as he faces a challenge to Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic primary. Biden's political past has been a key talking point for his political opponents.
After the passing of the bill, "untold thousands of people and families had their lives entirely disrupted, and in many ways destroyed," de Blasio told CNN's Dana Bash.
"We've got to break out of that, and anyone responsible has to be accountable," he added.
As far as being a longshot for the Democratic primary, with Biden running away in the polls, de Blasio rejected the accuracy of pre-primary polling.
"I found this with polls over and over again," he said. "If I believed the polls and listened to the polls in all my other elections, I might just have stayed home."
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