After declaring his running in the Democratic primaries late in the game, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has made his name relevant in conversations around the primaries. This isn’t good.
The former mayor of New York City declared that he would be running in late November, when several candidates who had been on the debate stage earlier in the year had already dropped from the race.
Since declaring that he would be running on the Democratic ticket, Bloomberg has been bombarding Americans with advertisements and PSAs. According to NPR, he has spent almost 450 million dollars on advertising, with all of that money coming out of his own pocket.
Unable to qualify for the debate stage due to his refusal to take campaign donations from citizens, many didn’t take him to be a serious candidate. After taking the stage in Las Vegas for the ninth Demcratic debate on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Bloomberg created a wave of media coverage — but not for reasons he and his team were probably hoping for.
During the debate, moderators asked Bloomberg pointed questions about past actions, both as a businessman and during his time as mayor. Other candidates also took turns drilling into Bloomberg and calling out his heinous actions.
Only minutes into the debate Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”
Many who support Bloomberg want to believe that his being a businessman gives him a solid ground to compete against Trump if the general election came down between the two of them. This is a ridiculous assumption and shows how little confidence some Democrats have in the party to take the White House in November.
If Bloomberg were to be nominated, America would be stuck choosing between two billionaires — one of whom has been accused of sexual harassment and the other who has been accused of discriminating against female employees.
In a 2008 New York Times article, it was reported that 50 women were accusing Bloomberg of discriminating against them while they were pregnant. This year, The Washington Post reported in detail on allegations that Bloomberg was known to verbally harass women in his workplace.
Warren has been constant in her insistence in knowing the story behind the non-disclosure agreements that employees of Bloomberg’s are told to sign. She claimed that these NDAs are a way for Bloomberg and his company to hide what they are doing behind closed doors, and if he wasn’t ashamed of anything then that these people should be released from these NDAs.
On the debate stage, Warren once again took Bloomberg on by demanding to know why he wouldn’t release the NDAs. Bloomberg stood by the agreements.
Bloomberg is not a good person. He has a history of being unfair toward women and of not being fully transparent about what goes on within his company. He’s also cut from the same political cloth as Trump.
Ads that Bloomberg has released have the same kind of childish energy that Trump appears with. Instead of focusing on how his policies will be good for America, Bloomberg has instead released ads saying “Donald Trump cheats at golf.” and “Donald Trump eats burnt steak. Mike Bloomberg likes his medium rare.”
Is this really the kind of person we want running for office? Is it the kind of person that someone against Trump for more than just issues in policy would want? It shouldn’t be.
So why does the media keep giving this man coverage? We should be focused on talking about the serious candidates who have the drive to make a change in this country. Candidates like Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders who have strong beliefs that they stand by and don’t just drag Trump for eating burnt steak.
Photo courtesy of Bloomberg Philanthropies
