BLOOM AND BUST
• Moneybags Mike drops out of prez race • Tosses support to Biden after epic flop
Three months and half a billion dollars later, Mike Bloomberg pulled the plug on his free-spending presidential campaign Wednesday and endorsed Joe Biden after an epic electoral collapse on Super Tuesday.
The billionaire ex-New York mayor who spent about $300 for every vote he received and had his only victory in the tiny territory of American Samoa — said he is dropping out because Biden proved Tuesday he’s the best Democrat to take on President Trump in November.
Speaking at an event in Midtown, Bloomberg also conceded he never really had a viable shot despite spending more than $500 million on ads and campaigning.
“I knew we didn’t have that much of a chance, but we did it anyway,” Bloomberg told a crowd of cheering supporters and staffers at the Sheraton Hotel, his voice cracking with emotion. “I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it for our country, America.”
Bloomberg spent a fortune on his short-lived campaign and won about 1.7 million votes, although more will trickle in as Super Tuesday states continue to tabulate results. He said Biden’s sweeping 10-primary victory Tuesday effectively means he should be the party’s standard-bearer.
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it, and after yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden,” he said.
The 78-year-old former mayor hinted he will shift gears and begin pouring cash into efforts to elect Biden.
“I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life, and I hope you won’t walk away, either,” Bloomberg told the crowd, which chanted “We like
Mike” and waved tiny American flags.
Biden returned the favor over Twitter.
“I can’t thank you enough for your support,” the former vice president tweeted at Bloomberg. “This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics. It’s about defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, we’re gonna do it.”
Bloomberg has repeatedly boasted he would spend $1 billion or more to beat Trump. Under campaign financing rules, Bloomberg would have to create a super PAC that would act independently of Biden’s campaign.
Manuel Peña, a 59-yearold Bloomberg supporter, said he hopes the ex-mayor continues his spending spree to help Biden.
“He will hopefully spend maybe even more,” Peña said after Bloomberg’s dropout speech. “He just wants Trump out.”
Elizabeth Warren, who also registered a woeful Super Tuesday performance,
huddled with top advisers Wednesday about whether she should stay in the race.
Bernie Sanders, who claimed Tuesday’s biggest delegate prize by winning the California primary, told reporters he had spoken with Warren but that she hadn’t made up her mind one way or another as to whether she will drop out and endorse someone else.
Trump needled Bloomberg by suggesting he should fire his high-priced campaign staff, whom he derided as “fools and truly dumb people.”
“This has been the worst, and most embarrassing, experience of his life,” Trump wrote on Twitter about Bloomberg.
Still, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily News that Bloomberg will keep at least some of his campaign staff on the payroll through November as he begins backing Biden instead.
“The intention of the campaign was to retain top talent and pay them into November,”
the source said.
The end of Bloomberg’s campaign caps a remarkable four days that have totally transformed the Democratic presidential race.
Biden scored a shocking landslide powered by black voters in the South Carolina primary Saturday. He then won the rapid-fire endorsements of fellow candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar after they dropped out of the race.
That set him up to win a huge swing of AfricanAmerican and suburban voters on Super Tuesday, swamping the rest of the field and beating Sanders in a diverse set of states from Texas to Massachusetts.
Bloomberg’s backing may give Biden a powerful new boost as the primaries keep coming, including upcoming battles in Sanders strongholds like Washington and Michigan next Tuesday.
It also sets up a one-onone battle between Biden and Sanders for the nomination. Prior to Super Tuesday, the race looked more jumbled, with Bloomberg and Warren threatening to siphon votes away from the front-runners.
Moderates like Bloomberg fear Sanders’ leftist views could drive away suburban voters in swing states, delivering four more years to Trump.
The devoted army of Sanders supporters counter that the Vermont lefty’s democratic socialist style is the perfect antidote to Trump and corporate America.
“This campaign is about asking one fundamental question: Which side are you on?” Sanders said during a Wednesday afternoon press conference in his native Burlington. “Are you on the side of the drug companies, the health insurance industry and the fossil fuel industry? Or are you on the side of the working families of this country?”
Bloomberg entered the race with much fanfare in November as Biden languished in the polling doldrums and struggled to raise money and build enthusiasm.
Bloomberg himself said he feared no one else in the race had the mojo to beat Trump — including Biden. He also suggested he was concerned that Sanders could beat a wounded Biden and romp to the nomination.
Even though he had to skip the traditional four early voting states, Bloomberg quickly became a ubiquitous figure on television nationwide.
He also spent lavishly on staff and campaigning on the ground in Southern states as well as the biggest prizes of California and Texas, where others simply did not have the cash to compete.
But Bloomberg, who won three campaigns for mayor as a Republican, remained an unpopular and divisive figure for many Democrats.
His apology for the NYPD’s controversial stopand-frisk policy during his administration fell on many deaf ears, and he struggled to explain away his support for Republican senators and even President George W. Bush.
Bloomberg’s first debate appearance last month proved another setback.
Warren eviscerated the ex-mayor over his alleged history of sexist remarks and other shortcomings, leaving him speechless on stage.
A week later, he faced a barrage of criticism again in a South Carolina debate as Biden began to surge.
Super Tuesday proved the last nail in the coffin.
The Republican-turnedDemocrat struggled to even clear the 15% threshold to win delegates in most of the 14 states that went to the polls.
He was predicted to win about 50 delegates after apparently barely clearing the hurdle in a handful of states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and perhaps California, where votes were still being tallied.
His sole victory came in the little-known territory of American Samoa, which divided up a paltry six delegates.