Democrat presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both lowly millionaires, have taken aim at late entrant former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (D-NY) for being a billionaire.
This is so ridiculous on its face that Bloomberg all but dismisses it by noting that any of the current crop of Democrats vying for their party’s 2020 nomination will be “eat[en] up” by President Trump.
I’m so old that I remember when Bernie railed against “millionaires and billionaires.” Over and over, for decades.
Until he became a millionaire, that is, and his schtick suddenly changed to include just “billionaires.”
He’s a bit touchy about his status among his once-reviled “millionaires and billionaires” club, however, and advises people to “write a best-selling book” if they want to be a millionaire like him. He says this knowing, of course, that his privileged position, including multiple failed runs for the presidency, has given him the name recognition and following to achieve a goal that most people, even better writers and thinkers, never can.
Both millionaire candidates are United States Senators, not exactly among we peasant classes, so it’s rather amusing to see these moneyed elitists try to tag Bloomberg as some kind of . . . moneyed elitist.
Bloomberg is a longshot to win or meaningfully compete for the Democratic nomination, but his decision to run immediately blew open the party’s battle over the influence of money, and the wealthiest Americans, on the political system.For Sanders and Warren, Bloomberg’s campaign brings with it both an opportunity to sharpen their messages and an existential new threat: a billionaire prepared to reach deep into his near bottomless pockets in an effort to derail them, their agenda and a style of politics that more deeply engages the electorate.The progressive senators, who have forsworn big dollar contributions, condemned Bloomberg out of the gate, with Sanders last week calling the billionaire businessman’s initial outlay an attempt to “circumvent the political process.” Absent grassroots support, Sanders said, candidates like Bloomberg had “no business running for president.”. . . . A few days later, Warren took the unusual-for-her step of calling out Bloomberg by name in Iowa.“I am here on Day 2 of Michael Bloomberg’s $37 million ad buy,” Warren said to laughter in Ankeny on Monday. “Michael Bloomberg is making a bet about democracy in 2020 — he doesn’t need people, he only needs bags and bags of money.”. . . . Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, Sanders kept up his own attacks on Bloomberg.“I understand the power of the ‘1%,’” he said at a rally in New Hampshire. “You’re seeing that right now literally with Mayor Bloomberg, who has decided to use part of his 55 billion dollars not to buy a yacht, not to buy another home, not to buy a fancy car, but to buy the United States government.”
There’s plenty to dislike and distrust about New York City’s Big Gulp-banning, would-be gun-grabbing busybody former mayor, but his being more wealthy than these millionaire senators is not at the top of the list for normal Americans.
Bloomberg, from what I can tell, has not directly responded to these ludicrous—considering the sources—attacks; instead, he’s noted that none of the current crop of Democrats can win against President Trump.
Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg said in an interview that aired Friday that he believed President Trump would trounce any of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls in a head-to-head match-up, saying Trump would “eat them up.””I looked at our national government getting worse. The way we were behaving overseas and domestically, led by our president. I said back in 2016 he is the wrong person for the job. He doesn’t have the temperament, the ethics, or the intellect to do the job,” Bloomberg told Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” “I watched and I said, ‘we just can’t have another four years of this.'””Then I watched all of the candidates, and I just thought to myself, ‘Donald Trump would eat them up,'” he continued.
According to the report, “Bloomberg later hedged on the statement, saying that he believed he was the best candidate to take on Trump in a general election. ‘Let me rephrase it. I think that I would do the best job of competing with him and beating him,’ he said.”
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