Michael Bloomberg
(AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

The least well-kept secret in the presidential campaign world has now been made official. Former New York mayor and gun control financier Michael Bloomberg has officially entered the race for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination.

Daddy Bloombucks thinks he’s “uniquely positioned” to defeat George W. Bush next November.

Don’t worry. The media will get all of that figured out over the next year, and line up solidly behind whomever comes out on top among the anti-gun cornucopia of Democrats still in the race.

Here’s the AP’s write-up . . .

By Steve Peoples, Associated Press

Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the world’s richest men, has formally launched a Democratic bid for president.

Ending weeks of speculation, the 77-year-old former Republican announced his candidacy Sunday in a written statement posted on a campaign website describing himself as uniquely positioned to defeat President Donald Trump. He will quickly follow with a massive advertising campaign blanketing airways in key primary states across the U.S.

“I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,” Bloomberg wrote.

“We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions,” he continued. “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.”

Bloomberg’s entrance comes just 10 weeks before primary voting begins, an unorthodox move that reflects anxiety within the Democratic Party about the strength of its current candidates.

As a centrist with deep ties to Wall Street, Bloomberg is expected to struggle among the party’s energized progressive base. He became a Democrat only last year. Yet his tremendous resources and moderate profile could be appealing in a primary contest that has become, above all, a quest to find the person best-positioned to deny Trump a second term next November.

Forbes ranked Bloomberg as the 11th-richest person in the world last year with a net worth of roughly $50 billion. Trump, by contrast, was ranked 259th with a net worth of just over $3 billion.

Already, Bloomberg has vowed to spend at least $150 million of his fortune on various pieces of a 2020 campaign, including more than $100 million for internet ads attacking Trump, between $15 million and $20 million on a voter registration drive largely targeting minority voters, and more than $30 million on an initial round of television ads.

He did not say how much he would be willing to spend overall on his presidential ambitions, but senior adviser Howard Wolfson did: “Whatever it takes to defeat Donald Trump.”

Wolfson also said that Bloomberg would not accept a single political donation for his campaign or take a salary should he become president.

Even before the announcement was final, Democratic rivals like Bernie Sanders pounced on Bloomberg’s plans to rely on his personal fortune.

“I’m disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy elections,” Sanders tweeted on Friday.

Elizabeth Warren, another leading progressive candidate, also slammed Bloomberg on Saturday for trying to buy the presidency.

“I understand that rich people are going to have more shoes than the rest of us, they’re going to have more cars than the rest of us, they’re going to have more houses,” she said after a campaign stop in Manchester, New Hampshire. “But they don’t get a bigger share of democracy, especially in a Democratic primary. We need to be doing the face-to-face work that lifts every voice.”

Bloomberg does not speak in his announcement video, which casts him as a successful businessman who came from humble roots and ultimately “put his money where his heart is” to effect change on the top policy issues of the day — gun violence, climate change, immigration and equality, among them.

Bloomberg has devoted tens of millions of dollars to pursue his policy priorities in recent years, producing measurable progress in cities and states across America. He has helped shutter 282 coal plants in the United States and organized a coalition of American cities on track to cut 75 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2025.

But he is far from a left-wing ideologue.

Bloomberg has declined to embrace Medicare for All as a health care prescription or the “Green New Deal” to combat climate change, favoring a more pragmatic approach.

Still, he has endeared himself to many of the nation’s mayors, having made huge investments to help train local officials and encouraging them to take action on climate, guns and immigration in particular.

Ahead of Bloomberg’s presidential announcement, the mayors of Columbia, South Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky, endorsed him. Despite that show of support from two local black leaders, Bloomberg may have trouble building a multi-racial coalition early on given his turbulent record on race relations in New York.

He angered many minority voters during his 12 years in the New York City mayor’s office for embracing and defending the controversial “stop-and-frisk” police strategy, despite its disproportionate impact on people of color. Facing an African-American congregation this month in Brooklyn, Bloomberg apologized and acknowledged it often led to the detention of blacks and Latinos.

The apology was received skeptically by many prominent activists who noted that it was made as he was taking steps to enter the race.

The campaign will be headquartered in Manhattan and managed by longtime adviser Kevin Sheekey. Wolfson will also play a senior role.

Bloomberg’s team did not establish a super PAC before launching the campaign, preferring to run the primary campaign and a simultaneous set of general election-focused moves like the anti-Trump internet ads and voter registration drive out of the same office.

The path ahead may be decidedly uphill and unfamiliar.

Bloomberg plans to bypass the first four states on the primary calendar — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — and focus instead on the crush of states that vote on Super Tuesday and beyond. It’s a strategy that acknowledges the limitations of entering the race at this late stage and the opportunities afforded by his vast personal wealth.

His team has noted that several candidates have devoted much of the year to building support on the ground in the earliest states, and Bloomberg needs to be realistic about where he can make up ground.

Nearly a quarter of primary delegates are up for grabs in the March 3 Super Tuesday contests, which have gotten far less attention so far.

Bloomberg has openly considered a presidential bid before, but as an independent. He declined to enter the 2016 contest only after deciding there was no path to victory without the backing of a major political party.

He explored a run earlier this year, too, but decided there was no path with establishment-favorite Joe Biden in the race. Biden’s perceived weakness, along with the rise of progressive firebrand Warren, convinced him to reconsider.

“We believe that voters are increasingly concerned that the field is not well positioned to defeat Donald Trump,” Wolfson said of Bloomberg’s decision to change his mind.

Initially registered as a Democrat, the Massachusetts native filed paperwork to change his voter registration to Republican in 2000 before his first run for New York City mayor, according to a spokesman. In June 2007, he unenrolled from the GOP, having no formal party affiliation until he registered again as a Democrat this October.

While some will question his newfound commitment to Democrats, he vowed allegiance to the party in an Associated Press interview earlier in the year, saying, “I will be a Democrat for the rest of my life.”

96 COMMENTS

      • It does, you can bet that on November 8, 2016, this weasel kicked himself for not running if only because he believes he’s twice as smart as Donald Trump. The thing is he’s not that smart, he’s too rich and too white so he’s going nowhere with the leftists.

    • Bloomie controls a *massive* media empire. Guess what that empire just announced?

      “Bloomberg News Announces It Will Not Investigate Mike Bloomberg, Or Any Of His Democratic Rivals”

      https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/bloomberg-news-announces-it-will-no-longer-investigate-any-mike-bloombergs-democratic

      Let’s just say the rest of the news media isn’t very happy :

      “Just in: Extraordinary statement from Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait about Bloomberg’s coverage plans of Mike Bloomberg’s candidacy: Bloomberg Editorial board suspended, no “investigation” of Mike, his family or foundation:”

      https://twitter.com/farhip/status/1198645499433275394

      “How do you wrap your mind around this? I can’t.

      Editorial board members joining the boss’s campaign? A pledge to not investigate him? A parallel pledge to not investigate any other Democrats?

      Is that newsgathering or a campaign contribution? What’s the in-kind value of this?”

      https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/1198658778884952065

      This is gonna get very *interesting*, people… 😉

      • IMO the WHOLE of Bloomberg “news? if you can call it “news?”

        Should be considered a campaign contribution now and all the other runners DNC and GOP should get FREE air time and ads run!

        • If someone believes that a source of news is credible, they will believe it. It matters not if it’s truthful.

          So guess what? That makes them a credible to them source of news…

    • If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage.”
      Excuse me, we recently survived 8 years of O’Ramadingbat. We survived FDR, CARTER, CLINTON the male and mentioned last but not least JFK assassin LBJ.
      Personally I am not a Trump fan and I have boycotted all elections since 1968, my way of showing my displeasure of all politicians. So unless John McCain was miraculously resurrected or someone of equal Valor and what I believe to have the same character of honesty, I’m probably not voting again.

      • Let me guess. . . Hindustani? Hmong? Fijian? Igorot? Yoruba? Peruvian Loup-Garou? Klingon?

        Come ON, now! Reveal to us ALL what ‘race’ he his, if he’s not ‘white.’

        Maybe if you turned your pointy hood around so that the eye-holes were in the front, you could make it out better.

    • I for one am a registered Democrat. I was spurred to this by a traitorous local politician, who swore up and down she respected gun rights, then took Bloomberg’s money and voted accordingly.

      I changed parties so I could help with an attempt to primary the contemptible, lying girl-child.

      I’m staying so I can try to do something similar in the primaries.

  1. There is an old saying about “cubic money” wining races and it worked in Virginia.

    The key is turnout and the left has developed and been improving methods of turning out their voters.

    Conservatives have no similar process and it shows at the voting booth.

    I have hopes but am not betting on Trump reelection.

    • It was a combination of Bloomberg money and gerrymandering in Virginia. We’re fighting back…13 2nd Amendment Sanctuary counties with many more to vote on the issue between now and mid-December. We will not comply!

    • You have a point, but think about the modern liberal base. Bloomberg is about as repulsive to the left as Trump is. Bloomberg might get some love from old democrat stalwarts and some in the Hillary crowd, but that’s it. Gun control is the only issue they agree on, and as much as we’re concerned about it, gun control is about 4rth or 5th on the list of liberal causes. They’re more interested in socialist healthcare, socialist taxation, cultural appropriation, slavery reperations, limitless free abortions, apocalyptic climate change, and destroying the military through social experiments. No white male will be the democrat nominee.

    • “There is an old saying about “cubic money” wining races and it worked in Virginia.

      The key is turnout and the left has developed and been improving methods of turning out their voters.”

      Gordon? He’s running as a *Democrat*.

      This has the potential to backfire on the Democrats the same way Ross Perot backfired on the Republicans, putting ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton in the White House…

      • I’m fully aware he is running as a “democrat”.
        I’m also aware he has been spending a lot of money funding leftist campaigns across the country and has won several races in “not democrat” areas.

  2. It’s just amazing to me that the state of Massachusetts puts out so many trashy politicians & anti constitutional laws.

  3. Bloom’tard’ can spend the projected $500,000,000 of his own money on next years election and it won’t do him a damn bit of good……he is not a likable person and he has very little charisma ….so Mr. ‘Nannystater’….you go ahead and squander your vast fortune as it will easily hand President Trump another 4 more years.

    • His own mother wouldn’t like him. But do remember he’s a democrat and everybody who lives in the cemetery is voting a straight democratic ticket next year.

    • The sad truth is money can buy power. The types he’ll buy are the influential ones like athletes, actors, musicians, celebrities, politicians and influencers and people that apear to be “common Dem voters” . His PR people can assign each of the above a popular Dem topic like universal heathcare, looser borders, abortion, adressing climate change, and not Trump. But there will be some limit to this, that those Dem voters and Dem Politicians will call BS and work against Bloomie.

      • The Black vote won’t turn out for him if he somehow gets the nomination, because of what he said when he was NYC mayor in 2012 about “Stop and Frisk” :

        “In response to allegations that the program unfairly targets African-American and Hispanic-American individuals, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stated that it is because African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are more likely to be violent criminals and victims of violent crime.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-and-frisk_in_New_York_City

        Oh, and that comment he said once about Blacks couldn’t be trusted with guns :

        https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/bloomberg-minorities-cant-be-trusted-with-firearms/

        He’s gonna have fun explaining *that* in the debates. 🙂

        Bloomie is far too toxic to the Democrat ‘brand’ they want to sell to the public. The DNC will pull a Bernie Sanders on his ass if he shows real results in the polling.

        The ideal scenario for us is that he ends up being number 2 in the Democrat primary. When that happened in 2016, pissed-off ‘Bernie Bros’ didn’t show up to vote in November, handing the election to Trump… 😉

  4. If democrats are saying we’ll never recover from what they consider “damage” if Trump gets reelected, that sounds like a damn good reason to vote for Trump again.

    • RGP,

      I don’t like Trump as a person. I don’t like Trump as a President. And I am having trouble seeing anything significant that he has done to “damage” our nation.

  5. The little man with the Napoleonic Complex thinks he can buy the White House??
    The little man doesn’t have a prayer in hell of being dog catcher.
    Just another senior citizen who wants to tell you how to eat breathe and when to sleep.
    I cant imagine what crap is floating around in his little mind?????

  6. So blooming-idiot thinks he can “Win” by paying millions to run a avalanche of negative ads against Trump. I guess he has not been paying attention to the non stop negative media coverage for the last four years! Negative media hasn’t even slowed Trump down. The more he spends on the election may reduce what he spends on gun control. Lol

    • The more hatred in the political ads next year towards Trump is a real double-edge sword for the Leftists. It won’t change one Democrat’s mind, it’s just preaching to the Leftist choir.

      When the Conservatives see those ads, it will motivate Trump supporters to show up for Trump.

      It will be fucking *priceless* if the DNC in their feckless incompetence ends up being the cause of Trump winning again.

      Leftist hatred, you know, the people that claim to be all about love and tolerance of others not like themselves can be the ones that reelect Trump… 😉

      • Well the DNC’s gonna have trouble no matter what. They’re starting off this election season like $7 million in the red and borrowing hundreds of thousands a month right now, before they even have a candidate to really support.

        • kapo bloomberg has bought the dnc. Which works to our benefit. The loony left will fracture out of the dnc and waste their votes on knot heads like aoc.

  7. I want to see his tax records and a full completely background check on the scale done to Brett Kavanaugh.

    • Democrats never fully vetted Obama in 2008 and 2012, what makes you think 2020 will be any different for their eventual nominee?

    • Big difference between the two offices. One is elected, the other is appointed (for life). In terms of the presidency, the voters are the background check.

  8. Nothing is more fun than pointing out to a bunch of Democrats that no matter how hard they try, their best hope of defeating Trump is a rich, old, white, guy who is polling at 4%. And the best part about Bloomberg is that he could really do some damage if he would be willing to be someone’s VP candidate but his jealousy of Trump won’t allow it. It’s about time to start shifting our priority to getting more pro gun senators and House members elected because Trump almost has the White House locked up.

    • “And the best part about Bloomberg is that he could really do some damage if he would be willing to be someone’s VP candidate but his jealousy of Trump won’t allow it.”

      You’re a fool to think that way.

      Bloomie as a VP would substantially strengthen the top of a Democrat ticket, and leave him plenty of free time to play Billionaire…

  9. Even if he loses, which is likely, his ability and demonstrated willingness to spend huge sums of his own money for his personal causes make him a threat. Even without winning his advertising can still move voters towards other gun control friendly candidates.

    Do not ignore the danger of a billionaire willing to spend his money!

    • What is more likely to happen is in spending vast sums of his money he fractures the left into fragments. True socialists and sjw’s and entitled white kids will be repelled by another old, white billionaire and split off from the dems.

      He’s making a second Trump term certain. That should ramp your TDS up to 11.

        • Yes. And this go round its working against the dems. kapo bloomberg just cannot refuse his basic nature. He had to stab someone in the back. It’s the lefts turn this time.

          And RBG was just in the hospital. Again. I would not be surprised to see Trump getting to pick another justice before his second term.

      • “Tom Steyer’s a billionaire too. And he’s doing super-awesome.”
        Oh PLEASE let Tom Steyer, who is running on a “green” platform, be the DNC candidate that gets to go toe-to-toe with Trump. It will be “super awesome” when Trump rips him a new a-hole for making a significant portion of his billions off coal, then caring about the enviorment.

        • With Steyer as the “green” candidate, I could expect to see Hildabeast jump in as the candidate wanting to give a voice to young women who have been sexually abused by married men.
          Justice for the rape victims, but, just not for the ones raped by her husband.

  10. Well, I guess we’ll find out whether the voting public really is for sale or not.

    As for me, my vote definitely is up for sale. Price: $49.5 billion. (I’m not greedy; gotta leave the guy something to live on.)

    Here’s the real problem, though: “If [Trump] wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage the progressives’ “resistance” will do.” And if Trump loses, the damage gets even worse.

    • “And if Trump loses, the damage gets even worse.”

      Only if they have a headlock on the House, Senate, and White House. It’s doubtful they will control the Senate, so far-reaching gun control laws are likely off the table.

      And there’s another consideration – Let’s say we get a landmark decision in our favor with the “NY Pistol” SCOTUS case. That’s gonna light a fire under their asses to control the White House and Senate, since they are the ones to nominate and confirm SCOTUS justices…

  11. Money not only talks, it talks with a very loud voice, which might well explain why Bloomberg’s actions or antics if you prefer, actions violative of federal firearms law generated nothing more than a letter from the ATF, advising Mr. B to cease. No raids, nobody dragged off in chains, just a brief note. Think history, as sometimes is claimed, explains current events?

    By the way, should it turn out that my memory of past events is incorrect, or somehow faulty, do so advise.

  12. I wonder if Bllomieturd hasn’t heard what the Commiecrats of Iowa have said in the latest poll,that their man is none other than mayor Booti gig plug . Seems like he’s wasting his time and money getting in now that the Commiecrats of Iowa have decided.

    Just think how all the fuel the Commiecrat candidates will waste in search of something they can’t obtain,to hasten the end of the worlds climate as it’s supposed to end in 8 to 9 or is it 12 years,How Dare You has been uttered by other Leftards.

  13. There are some things that money cannot buy, or so it is claimed. Let’s see if the Democratic party’s nomination for the presidency is one such.

  14. “Anti-Gun Patron Saint Michael Bloomberg Officially Enters the Presidential Race”

    Oh Boy!

    I can’t wait to NOT vote for him in election and to vote for his
    opponent.

  15. Big money buys politics in the U.S. As unlikely a candidate as Bloomberg is (except for guns he is a Republican) with Democrats no one in the Democratic party has enough money to stop him for the nomination. Bloomberg knows he will appeal to independents and moderates as well as some Republicans and the Democrats will vote for anyone to defeat Trump even if they hate Bloomberg.

    • In my lifetime. A catholic will never be president. Kennedy. A black man will never be president. barry. Trump will never be president. LOL.

      A jew will be president. Just not this one. How about a jewish woman? That will cause some heads to explode.

      • “How about a jewish woman? That will cause some heads to explode.”

        Some are saying the Trump boys may be interested in politics, and one of them has a Jewish wife.

        So, you may get your wish… 😉

  16. Leftist Voters: We HATE fat, old, white, rich men!!!

    Also Leftist Voters: Votes for fat, old, white, rich men!?

  17. He won’t be the nominee. Unless he buys the DNC like he did with multiple state governments such as Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Florida. But be cause of that and other reasons he is the physical embodiment of everything the rest of the country hates about. NYC. But his money is dangerous. He could pump 500 million into his campaign PER MONTH.

    He’s also doing this I think to save the party. The Democratic Party is fracturing and the far left is taking over the party. The far left does not know how to play politics or run a country. And the far left the runs the democrat party HATE what Bloomberg is: white, male and rich. To the far left that runs the Democratic Party if they were in control they would mandate the complete and total extermination of the entire white male population. The far left wants Bloomberg executed and all of his money given to illegals.

  18. Mike B has already apologized for the NY stop and frisk policy from while he was the Mayor of NY.
    In politics, when you apologize, you dismiss yourself.
    Your dismissed Blumburg, and you did it to yourself. What a total moron.

  19. I’m starting to see commercials for his campaign. He talks about Trumps wealth (among other nonsense) as if HE has none. He also talked about creating jobs as if he actually succeeded in keeping Amazon in New York.

    All I could do was laugh.

  20. “He has helped shutter 282 coal plants”……At the cost of how many jobs? Lets watch him through millions down the crapper!

  21. A fascist jewish billionaire runs for the presidency. Anyone can run in this wonderful country of ours. But fortunately very few ever win to become president.

  22. Here is something interesting Bloomberg said years ago.

    http://www.mic.com/articles/39057/stop-and-frisk-mike-bloomberg-defends-it-compares-the-nyclu-to-the-nra

    Arguing that stop and frisk is an essential part of his campaign for responsible gun laws, Bloomberg criticised both the NYCLU and the NRA, equating them as “extremist” organisations of the left and right respectively. He compared the lack of courage of some elected officials in Washington to stand up to the NRA and “pass common sense gun laws,” to some in New York City who don’t have the courage to stand up to the NYCLU and “support common sense policing tactics like stop and frisk.” Here is the video of the Bloomberg speaking on Tuesday.

    And here is what he had to say on the subject in 2012: “Let’s be clear: the NYCLU’s priority is not protecting our safety. It is protecting their ideology, And in that regard, they are no better than the NRA. One group views the Second Amendment in absolutist terms; the other group views the Fourth Amendment in absolutist terms. Both groups, I think, are dangerously wrong on the Constitution.”

    Emphases added

    • He already apologized to the minorities for the stop and frisk program. I’m expecting the apology to American gun owners any minute now.

  23. The best part of watching li’l Mikey B run will be the pathetic turnouts where he shows up to speak. The only way there will be more then a few dozen people at his speeches will be if he ships in all the MDA hags, or goes to a college town where the students will be given credits or perks to show up. Yes friends, your tax dollars at work, going to fund “higher education” (ha), then diverted to support a walking/talking turd like Blumburg.

  24. Just another rich CORRUPT COMMUNIST that thinks he can “buy” his way into the oval office. It seems lately they are coming out of the woodwork.
    “rebuild America”? What a JOKE. WE are already doing a LOT better since we got rid of the last FRAUD usurper that did his best to tear DOWN this country, and turn everyone against one another.
    People If you want this country to remain FREE , Prosperous, without endless STRANGLING regulations, MORE Unconstitutional “laws” enacted, and control of your lives and MONEY, cast your vote for Donald J. Trump, and KEEP AMERICA GREAT, FREE and SAFE. Otherwise be prepared to be CONTROLLED if the DEMOCOMMUNISTS regain power. VOTE OUT ALL DEMOCOMMUNISTS.

  25. Bloomberg is like the other 99.9% of Democrats, he supports ‘abortion’ that stops a LIVE BABY from being born! And since God says “DO NOT KILL” even IF his money can buy him the Democratic nomination for President he won’t be getting my vote!!! [And his anti-gun stance is wrong also, but then again all Democrats don’t see the BIG PICTURE. That by supporting ‘abortion’ they are sowing the seeds of DEATH and the mass shootings/casualty events are the result of their supporting ‘abortion’ (Galatians 6:7- Do not be deceived, whatever one sows that will he also reap)].

  26. It used to be said (originally about Napoleon) that small men have big egos. While this is not universally true, it does apply to this current midget who wants to become President. There are rumors that he has put Bloomberg media up for sale to Microsoft – if that is true, then something very positive is likely to happen. Bloomer-boy won’t have a media arm anymore, he is unlikely to become President, and the whole exercise in vanity will leave him irrelevant in a few months. There might be an even bigger plus if he plays a Ross-Perot style independent and splits the Democrat vote, ensuring a Republican victory. Yes, I know Trump isn’t pro-gun as his actions have clearly demonstrated, but he’s the better of two evils considering the stances of the Democrats running against him on guns in particular.

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