Teen Reporter Scoops De Blasio’s Presidential Candidacy Announcement

By Marcy Oster May 16, 2019

(JTA) — A St. Louis teen who writes a daily politics newsletter scooped New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s presidential candidacy announcement.

De Blasio officially made the announcement early Thursday morning in a 3-minute video posted on YouTube, and followed it up with an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

But Gabe Fleisher, had already tweeted the imminent announcement at 5 p.m. Wednesday after reading a small announcement in a politics blog from a local wing of the Democratic Party in Sioux City, Iowa, inviting members to see de Blasio on Friday at the mayor’s “first stop on his Presidential announcement tour.”

“De Blasio is set to appear on @GMA tomorrow — just as @KamalaHarris, @Hickenlooper, @ericswalwell & @sethmoulton did on the mornings they announced their presidential bids,” he also tweeted.

Fleisher, whose father is a rabbi, began emailing his mother political missives at the age of 9, which she shared with others. He began to write an official newsletter in 2012 after a front-page story about him and his political interests ran in the St. Louis Dispatch. He picked up subscribers, including political celebrities, after The New York Times profiled him in 2017.

“It was exciting to watch it instantly get attention and trigger discussion,” he told The Washington Post about his de Blasio tweet. He noted that he had finished his homework before scanning the blog that got him his scoop.

? New York City Mayor @BilldeBlasio to headline an event in Sioux City, Iowa, on Friday, which the local Democratic Party is calling the “first stop on his Presidential announcement tour”: https://t.co/WEiKNXXmfg pic.twitter.com/BNSabvbPav

— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) May 15, 2019

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