MIKE ALL IN FOR PREZ
Sez we ‘can’t afford 4 more years of Trump,’ but gets cool reception from N.Y.ers, flak from Bern
Now that he’s gotten his apologizing out of the way, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is officially entering the presidential race.
“I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,” Bloomberg stated Sunday morning on his campaign website.
“We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions,” he added. “He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage.”
The news had been anticipated since Bloomberg filed paperwork to be in the Democratic primary in Arkansas and Alabama earlier this month.
Last Sunday, the former mayor took to a predominantly black Brooklyn megachurch to apologize for his handling of the police strategy known as stop-and-frisk, addressing a potential liability in the eyes of liberal voters as he enters the race late in the game.
The apology went over poorly with New Yorkers who were directly impacted by stopand-frisk, the Daily News reported.
“He’s been out of office for seven years. Now that he’s running for president, he apologizes? It’s a little too late,” said Milan Taylor, who endured a “traumatizing” stop-and-frisk encounter several years ago.
Bloomberg has also sought to address his history of sexist remarks about women.
Earlier this month, a Bloomberg spokesman issued a contrite statement — but not an apology — saying, “Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong.
“He believes his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life,” Stu Loeser said.
Loeser was referencing lowlights like a 32-page book of one-liners that staffers at Bloomberg’s company created in 1990 as a gag gift. Among the entries in “The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg” was “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of Bloomingdale’s.”
Bloomberg on Sunday touted his 2002-2013 tenure as mayor in announcing his presidentialrun,omittinganymenA tion of police tactics, let alone sexist speech.
“I was elected mayor of America’s most diverse city just weeks after the attacks of 9/11. It was a frightening time for our city and country. But we rebuilt the economy with new jobs and opportunity,” said Bloomberg, 77.
“We cut murders in half while reducing incarceration by nearly 40%.”
Among a list of priorities, Bloomberg highlighted gun violence and climate change. Since leaving office, the ex-mayor has spent millions of dollars on campaigns to create gun control and fight global warming.
TV ad unveiled in tandem with the announcement emphasized the billionaire’s middle-class background and targeted Trump. He’s reserved a whopping $35 million in airtime for the first round of ads for his campaign.
“The wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class will get their fair share,” the ad promises.
Forbes estimates the media mogul’s worth is about $54 billion.
Bloomberg, an ex-Republican, is poised to present himself as a centrist among a field of lefty Democratic candidates. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren lead the pack.
“We do not believe that
billionaires have the right to buy elections,” Sanders said Sunday. “Multibillionaires like Mr. Bloomberg are not going to get very far in this election.”
Bloomberg enters the fray about two months after his successor Mayor de Blasio ended his humiliating bid for the White House.
“There’s no way in the world we should nominate a billionaire who epitomizes the status quo,” de Blasio sniped on Nov. 11. “I think when he was mayor, he had no understanding of the inequality crisis.”
Polls show Bloomberg garnering little support in the first four states holding Democratic primaries — which he reportedly plans to ignore, focusing instead on the many states where balloting is scheduled for Super Tuesday, March 3.
Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway belittled Bloomberg’s entry into the race, saying it shows “the Democratic field is underwhelming.”
“There are 18 Democrats still running for president of the United States … with probably another 10 or 12 already dropped out of the race,” she said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Michael Bloomberg [comes] in saying, ‘I don’t think any of you can beat Donald Trump.’ For all the talk about electability, that’s a fiction.”
Bloomberg’s entry into the race marks a reversal from his stance in March, when he said “the best way for me to help our country is by rolling up my sleeves and continuing to get work done” off the campaign trail.
No mayor of New York City
has ever won the White House. Along with de Blasio, former mayors Rudy Giuliani and John Lindsay launched doomed campaigns. Former Mayor George McClellan Jr. was crushed in the Democratic presidential primary in 1904.
But Bloomberg changed his mind in recent weeks, as Biden tripped up on the campaign trail and the most liberal candidates gained ground.
While Bloomberg came out as the most popular of the past three mayors in a recent Siena College poll, New Yorkers voiced mixed reactions to his presidential run.
“If he ran the country the same way he ran the city, I think he’d be effective,” said Stanley Woo, a 63-year-old retired correction officer from Forest Hills, Queens. “I don’t think it’s a very good chance because he’s starting so late in the process, but you never know — it might change the dynamics of the race.”
Jesse Brown, a 53-year-old building specialist from the West Village, said it was a bad move.
“I’m not a fan of Bloomberg. I think he would take votes from the front-runner. He flipflops, too. He already bullied New York when he took a third term. He thinks he can win this with money,” Brown said.
“It’s a little too late,” said Artie Singleton, a 49-year-old legal biller from Jamaica, Queens. “He should have been in it from the beginning. With all these candidates, this is more like a side show.”