Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Gabe Fleisher: The Boy Who Scooped Bill De Blasio

One Wednesday in May after a school exam, Gabe Fleisher tripped across a Facebook event from a county Democratic Party page in Iowa that said Sioux City was the first stop on Bill de Blasio’s “Presidential announcement tour.” This was interesting — because de Blasio had not yet announced he was actually running. So Fleisher, now 18, Tweeted it.

Fleisher’s email newsletter, “Wake Up to Politics,” has 50,000 subscribers, including a contributing editor at The Atlantic, an anchor at MSNBC and the founder of Politico. Fleisher, who lives in a suburb of St. Louis, Mo., has pushed through a police canine unit to get to Jeff Sessions. He’s interviewed Nancy Pelosi. He’s covered primary debates. But in the summer, like any nice Jewish boy, he takes a break from politics and goes to camp.

Gabe Fleisher

Gabe Fleisher Image by Courtesy of Gabe Fleisher

What’s the last thing you listened to on your phone? “The West Wing Weekly” podcast

Earliest Jewish memory: My upsherin at age 3!

Hero: Ralph Carr, the late governor of Colorado who was the only elected official to oppose Japanese-American interment (and the subject of my Bar Mitzvah d’var torah)

2019 memory Being able to interview New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio after scooping his presidential announcement

What is your favorite thing about being Jewish? Feeling a connection to fellow Jews all around the world, transcending nationality and culture

What app can you not live without? Twitter, for better or for worse

Weekend ritual: Sleeping in

Read more:

Gabe’s big scoop

His interview in the Forward

Gabe’s scoop in the New Yorker

Gabe’s newsletter in the New York Times

Follow Gabe Fleishman on Twitter @WakeUp2Politics and Instagram: @wakeuptopolitics

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.