Mike soars, draws fire
As Bloomy rises in polls, Dem rivals pick at his record
With support rising among Democratic voters, Michael Bloomberg seemed to be on the tip of every politico’s tongue over the weekend, drawing sharp criticism from party rivals for the presidential nomination.
“Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
“We will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Donald Trump if that candidate pursued, advocated for and enacted racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear,” the socialist firebrand added as early primary voting got underway in Nevada.
Pete Buttigieg zeroed in on Bloomberg’s history of controversial comments about women.
“He’s going to have to answer for that and speak to it,” the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is a time where voters are looking for a president who can lead us out of the days when it was just commonplace or accepted to have these kinds of sexist and discriminatory attitudes. Right now, this is our chance to do something different.”
He was referring to a weekend Washington Post report detailing Bloomberg’s alleged history of profane, sexist comments toward women, as well as lawsuits accusing the billionaire of fostering a culture of harassment at his media company.
The former New York mayor decided to sit out the first four primaries of the year, but with Super Tuesday just over two weeks away, his steady rise in polls has rivals concerned.
Bloomberg had support from 14.2% of Democratic voters, according to a Sunday average of polls by Real Clear Politics, up from less than 3% when he entered the race in November. The ex-mayor was trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by 5 percentage points and Sanders, the frontrunner, by more than 9 percentage points.
Asked about the colossal fortune Bloomberg is bringing to bear on his campaign, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) admitted on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Is it daunting? Yes.
“I do things like … take tough questions and then at the same time, he is running more ads on whatever he wants during that same time,” she added.
Bloomberg, who over the years has donated billions of dollars to progressive causes, on Saturday marched on with his latest policy proposal, calling for a nationwide minimum wage of $15 among other steps aimed at helping labor.
He campaigned Saturday in Virginia, one of the states holding primaries on Tuesday, March 3.
“I will work to dismantle systems that are plagued by bias and discrimination, I will invest in communities that have worn the brunt of these systems for generations,” he said at a craft brewery in Richmond. “I will put this work at the very top of my agenda.”