Bloomberg Provides Campaign Material for Trump Against Bernie’s Socialism
Michael Bloomberg practically wrote ads for the Trump campaign with his attacks on Sen. Bernie Sanders during last night’s Democratic debate.
The consensus from people from across the political spectrum is that Michael Bloomberg bombed in last night’s debate. The other candidates hit him with attacks on his immense wealth, past policies, and behavior almost from the word “go.”
It was surprising that he was even still standing at the end of it.
But though he left the debate in much worse shape than he was in when it started, his campaign is not over by a long shot. As Professor Jacobson noted, Bloomberg is not on any ballots until Super Tuesday, which is on March 3rd. He has plenty of time for his debate woes to fade out of the spotlight and other candidates to implode in Nevada and/or South Carolina.
In the meantime, the few solid blows Michael Bloomberg landed against frontrunner Bernie Sanders during the Democratic debate were practically tailor-made for the Trump campaign to use in future ads against Sanders.
Here are three of them:
1) After Sanders bemoaned the so-called “grotesque level of income and wealth inequality,” he claims exists in America and said in so many words that billionaires like Bloomberg should be more on board with sharing more of their wealth, Bloomberg hit back hard.
Bloomberg told the moderators he would “absolutely not” support what Sanders was proposing. “I can’t think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation. This is ridiculous. We’re not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn’t work.” As Bloomberg said that, both Sanders and Sen. Warren audibly groaned and raised their hands to respond.
Watch:
Bloomberg basically calls Bernie Sanders's economic ideas communism. #DemocraticDebate #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/cjEUPwP3XR
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 20, 2020
Sanders later asserted that it was a “cheap shot” for Bloomberg to use the word “communism” to refer to socialism.
2) Moderator Lester Holt asked Sanders about a recent NBC poll where two-thirds of voters said they were “uncomfortable with socialist candidate for president.” Sanders defended his belief in socialism in the full minute and a half. He spouting off his usual pablum about how the system’s structure benefits the wealthy and not the working man:
SANDERS: But here is the point. Let’s talk about democratic socialism. Not communism, Mr. Bloomberg. That’s a cheap shot. Let’s talk about — let’s talk about what goes on in countries like Denmark, where Pete correctly pointed out they have a much higher quality of life in many respects than we do. What are we talking about? We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. The problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.
BLOOMBERG: Wait a second.
SANDERS: When Donald — let me finish. When Donald Trump gets $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury condominiums, that’s socialism for the rich.
BLOOMBERG: Wait a second.
SANDERS: When Walmart — we have to subsidize Walmart’s workers who are on Medicaid and food stamps because the wealthiest family in America pays starvation wages, that’s socialism for the rich. I believe in democratic socialism for working people, not billionaires, health care for all, educational opportunities for all.
HOLT: All right, Senator, Senator, thank you.
SANDERS: Creating a government that works for all, not just for Mr. Bloomberg.
Bloomberg blasted back by pointing out that Sanders had done exceptionally well for himself in the very American capitalistic society he denounces:
HOLT: The question was about socialism.
BLOOMBERG: What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?
SANDERS: Well, you’ll miss that I work in Washington, house one.
BLOOMBERG: That’s the first problem.
SANDERS: Live in Burlington, house two.
BLOOMBERG: That’s good.
SANDERS: And like thousands of other Vermonters, I do have a summer camp. Forgive me for that. Where is your home? Which tax haven do you have your home?
BLOOMBERG: New York City, thank you very much, and I pay all my taxes. And I’m happy to do it because I get something for it.
Watch:
3) When asked if he felt Sanders could beat President Trump, Bloomberg hit him on his Medicare for All plan:
BLOOMBERG: I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating President Trump. You don’t start out by saying I’ve got 160 million people I’m going to take away the insurance plan that they love. That’s just not a way that you go and start building the coalition that the Sanders camp thinks that they can do. I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever. And if he goes and is the candidate, we will have Donald Trump for another four years. And we can’t stand that.
Watch:
Using video clips of candidates sparring with each other during primary debates is not uncommon for either party to do. One more notable example of this happening was in 2008 when John McCain’s campaign used footage of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden standing by his statement that he didn’t believe Barack Obama had enough experience to be president.
McCain used that in a general election ad after Obama picked Biden to be his VP, but don’t be surprised if you see Trump use Bloomberg’s words against Sanders well before the Democratic National Convention gets underway in July, for a couple of reasons.
The first one being that they have the potential to damage Sanders in advance of the general election campaign season should he become the nominee. Second, the ads would have the potential to deepen the divisions within the Democratic party as to whether or not Sanders should lead them in the fall, which could more considerably increase the chances of a bitterly divisive brokered convention.
Stay tuned.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
In his second term, POTUS Awesome Donald John Trump will name little Mike as an ambassador. To the woke community of the USA.
It will not be a popular appointment with anybody.
Trump needs to name an ambassador to CNN. I wonder if Bannon would take that job and come back.
Shall we Troll the DEMS by telling them Bloomberg is actually a Trump Secret Agent?
Snark!
1: Don’t count Bloomberg out. He’s not stupid and he’s lots of money. I expect him to be better prepared at the next debate
2: When Sanders says that Walmart doesn’t pay enough so that its employees are on Medicaid, he may have cause and effect backwards. It may that yhe existence of Medicaid allows Walmart and employers like it to pay less.
3) Communism and socialism are not different? After all, wasn’t it called the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics?
Thank you. If I were watching only the clips of Bloomberg form this debate, I would say he came across as composed, sane and moderate. Now, being a consumer of Legal Insurrection, I know that he is not those things, but that is how he comes across in the clips. Watch out for the low-information voters who get their news from selected clips.
I can’t wait for the Democrat National Convention. Super delegates met by MiniMike swooping in dressed as Spider Man! Bernie Bros rioting everywhere! There will be no way for the MSM to report this in a way that hurts Trump.
This is the chaos I always dreamed of while voting 3rd party. The old Democrat and Republican parties no longer exist. For now, it’s Trump vs the marxist crazy train. After the elections, it will be Trump’s new Republican Party vs ??????
In Illinois there is not much to vote for on the Republican side, so I’m crossing over. The thing is that I don’t know who to vote for to create the most confusion.
My suggestion would be to go for Bernie to set up a Which Way, America election.
The last time that the Which Way, America Question was asked, in 1964 (Goldwater v. LBJ), America made a big-time choice for Big Government, and a big time mistake. And it was a landslide: Johnson got 486 EC votes. To be sure a good chunk of his votes were sympathy votes because of Jack’s assassination, but still, the Democrats’ big government approach won bigly.
Phyllis Schlafly made the case for Goldwater with her book A Choice Not an Echo. Goldwater would have taken the country, especially through its foreign policy, in an Americanist direction. He would have brought to an end the CFR-controlled approach of America being the world’s policeman.
A Bernie v. Donald contest would present a similar choice for America. But this time we’re experienced. We know what Big Government does, that endless war is the CFR choice of approach. And we can contrast that with the refreshing approach used by Trump.
Being too young to vote in ’64 saved me from the biggest electoral mistake of my life. LBJ was the worst President of my life time. LBJ fought two war, the War in Vietnam and the War on Poverty. We lost them both.
Here it is Spider Mike!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUdpREtJFwg
Even better than MiniMike Poppins!
So, should I expect to see this headline in November …
“After Sanders hit a Bloomberg, campaign sank in a Titanic disaster!”
“Sanders later asserted that it was a ‘cheap shot'[*] for Bloomberg to use the word ‘communism’ to refer to socialism.”
*An accurate shot since a communist is simply a socialist in a hurry.
Accurate shots are cheap shots. Newspeak Dictionary says so!
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck …
Seen on the web:
Word on the street is that the new hot billionaire fetish is paying $500 million to get your ass kicked by Pocahontas.
A just dropped UMass-Lowell poll shows Bernie ahead of Mini Mike in NC and Texas. Also, way ahead in California. If those numbers are accurate, will be very hard to deny him the nomination.
If the aseptic Bloomberg gets Bernie to rise to the bait, imagine what the glib-tongued Trump will get him to say.
The Bloomberg ads are saturating the airwaves to the point that by Super Tuesday, nobody will remember this debate or Bloomberg’s performance. You can even splice together some clips from this debate to make Mike look pretty good. Bloomberg made two major errors. The first was to disavow stop and frisk. The deep dark secret that the media is hiding is that stop and frisk is the most effective way of keeping guns off the streets. As others have pointed out, it is demeaning to members of the minority community, but getting killed or finding out that your kid was killed by a punk with a gun is a lot worse. Bloomberg’s second problem is his incredibly weak answer on NDAs. He should have come right out and said that, unlike anybody else on the stage, in his line of business you get sued a lot and, in order to avoid bad publicity from what amounts to frivolous suits that were settled, you get and enforce freely negotiated NDAs. That’s the way the real world works, in contrast the Congress where, at least until recently, public money was able to be used as hush money to settle these kinds of lawsuits. He also missed an opportunity when pressed regarding how long it was taking for him to release his tax returns. He should simply have said that his immense wealth and philanthropy are matters of public record and the only thing tax returns might reveal beyond that is conflicts of interest, of which he is sure there are none, and that as long as one is thinking about conflicts of interest, “Hey, Joe, what about Hunter?” and “How many of you take money from Soros?”
“As others have pointed out, it is demeaning to members of the minority community, but getting killed or finding out that your kid was killed by a punk with a gun is a lot worse.”
Not to a progressive.
Of course, if Bloomberg’s tax returns have anything that is aggressive, even if it is perfectly legal, or any of a number of things that are absolutely normal in a business context but outside the range of experience for most salaried individuals, for example statutory tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and carryovers, there will be somebody in the media spinning about how he doesn’t pay his fair share, and the only question will be whether the other parts of the media who are terrified of having Bernie as the candidate will come to Bloomberg’s defense when they did not come to the defense of other individuals and companies that were similarly smeared.
Didn’t Bloomberg say he’s released all his tax returns except for the most recent? If they don’t have 2019 yet, look at 2018, 2017, etc. His opponents seemed to turn even this molehill into a mountain.
Didn’t Bloomberg say he’s released all his tax returns except for the most recent? If they don’t have 2019 yet, look at 2018, 2017, etc. His opponents seemed to turn even this molehill into a mountain.
Maybe Bloomberg’s goal is to make Sanders (even more) unelectable, so the party bigwigs will have no choice but to choose him. They may have already endorsed this approach.
bloomberg is Ross Perot’ing this election for the democrats.
More Material on Sanders.
Found it! Bernie’s favorite fragrance!!!!!
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MhkAAOSwVpRbNexA/s-l1600.jpg
KRANKS AFTERSHAVE LOTION
Bloomberg’s cynical attempt at buying position will not sit well with people. Everyone know his ubiquity is undeserved and it is annoying as hell.
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