Michael Bloomberg made it official. The gun control godfather and financier of several anti-gun groups is throwing his billions in to buy his way to the White House and force his radical anti-gun agenda on America.
It might have been the worst-kept secret in the history of presidential runs. The former New York city mayor has played an on-and-off again tease with his presidential ambitions.
In October, the Nanny-in-Chief threatened a run, only to walk it back when he announced in March that he wouldn’t. Then, he said, “I am clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination.”
It seems that the billionaire got a set of 2020 glasses where the future appears, at least to him, much clearer. Bloomberg’s vision for a gun control America is brighter, in his estimate, after he poured $2.5 million to flip Virginia blue for gun control through Everytown for Gun Safety, which he bankrolls, along with Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action and March for Our Lives.
Those groups are already setting their sights on the Second Amendment stronghold of Texas, aiming to knock out Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Colorado’s Republican Sen. Cory Gardner.
None of this comes at a surprise. Bloomberg said in February he was prepared to spend a half billion dollars to wrest control of the White House from President Donald Trump. He dumped in $80 million to bolster gun control Democrats to Congress in the 2018 midterms. Now, he’s vowing off public funding, using his near endless reserves to launch a shot to be elected as nation’s top Gun Controller.
Welcome to the Race
His announcement, though, is already being widely panned, even by those who openly embrace even the most far-reaching gun control ideas he pushes. Democratic candidate and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted the Republican-turned-Independent-turned Democrat.
“Telling billionaires they can come and buy elections, that does not make democracy work,” she told reporters.
Bloomberg got a similar chilly reception from Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) when he reacted to the announcement saying Bloomberg’s “not going to get very far in this election.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) panned his $34 million announcement media blitz, adding “I just don’t think people are going to buy it.”
More Obstacle Course than Race
The 77-year-old has hurdles to overcome. Aside from his less-then-warm reception by his fellow competitor candidates, he’s not inspiring a strong following from those who he funnels missions of dollars to peddle his gun control message. Buzzfeed polled 11 Moms Demand and Students Demand Action grassroots volunteers to see if their gun control funder-in-chief earned their vote. None committed to the billionaire.
“I’m not super psyched about it, but I respect him enormously,” said Jessica Craven, 51, the legislative lead for her Moms Demand Action group in Northeast Los Angeles. The Wall Street Journal reported Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action reassured their followers they wouldn’t need to pledge their votes to the guy footing their bill.
Adding to Bloomberg’s obstacles are two glaring facts he can’t ignore. Bloomberg’s own news organization refuses to investigate their benefactor, a signal he might not be up for the media scrutiny. To be fair, they’ll extend that same courtesy to all other Democratic candidates, but not to President Donald Trump, whom Bloomberg has targeted.
Former Bloomberg D.C. bureau chief editor Megan Murphy was astonished, saying “This is not journalism.”
Bloomberg’s also facing a dearth of public support. In the five national primary polls tracking the candidates, he’s hovering around 2 percent. That might explain why he’s skipping the early state tests of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and the debate stages where Americans get to hear directly why he’s running.
Even the left-leaning Mother Jones begged Bloomberg to butt out. “Stop, please!” pleaded Michael Winchester of Cedar Rapids. “This is insane.”
That’s something we’ve been saying about Michael Bloomberg for years.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“Adding to Bloomberg’s obstacles are two glaring facts he can’t ignore. Bloomberg’s own news organization refuses to investigate their benefactor, a signal he might not be up for the media scrutiny.”
According to the news organization, they won’t because it smacks loudly of a conflict of interest. Further, they will not be posting any unsigned editorial opinions either. That actually makes a lot of sense.
dual reads here…..either it’s the height of arrogance…or he genuinely believes there’s no one in the current democratic field that can win…possibly both….
Both are possible in support of each other.
Think his time and money could be better spent in another place, Venezuela comes to mind. They seem to like royalty like him.
The reason that Bloomberg is running is because the most centrist candidate, Joe Biden, is crashing and burning. Aside from his nanny-statism and anti-gun beliefs, he is, for a democrat, fiscally conservative. I think he recognizes that there is a large core of Democratic voters who are not at all happy with the far left swing of the primary contenders. Those voters, if left behind, are ripe for picking by the Republicans.
then there are his rich cronies…many of whom would prefer to lose the election than see someone like Warren win…
While I think the only way he will get the nomination is a repeat of the Hillary campaign I also think you are spot on with your assessment.
He has the highest disapproval rating in the field of Dems. Welcome to the party Mickey!!
Gotta love that remark from Pocahontas, “Telling billionaires they can come and buy elections, that does not make democracy work,” she told reporters. It’s so much more ethical to buy the election with taxpayers’ money, as she and all the other Democratic contenders are doing.
This! This made me lol.
This is great news, some rich old senior citizen wants to buy his way in then fine. All it’s doing is adding to the confusion about who the dems will vote for..Should it be bernie, what about biden? Is it warren, beto’s gone but he had a few supporters. Nobody can pronounce buttigieg’s name but that doesn’t matter, all we need for him to do is siphon a few hundred thousand votes away. Now we have bloomberg coming in right behind stretchmark harris. They’re all insane, this only adds to their problems. The more candidates the merrier, disorder and instability is a terrific thing and each nominee is more than welcome to carry his share of the load.
You are so right about his name! I have such a hard time pronouncing it.
When I heard Ben Shapiro say his name for the first time, I thought he said Booty Judge.
This guy scares the hell out of me!! A few days ago he openly said that he was able to turn Virginia blue with his money because there were citizens who were concerned about gun safety issues. Bloomberg is a narcissist who only cares about controlling people and does what he thinks is best for them. I think this guy literally will try to buy the presidency of the United States with his money and if that’s the case screw him and his agenda
I know this article points out the money he spent on the Virginia race and how it seems to have turned the tide but I just read on another site that BIG MONEY was spent by conservation groups like the Sierra Club and those ilk to turn Virginia blue. $6 million dollars big. I think there was more afoot than just him spending money in Virginia. I think there were plenty of groups buying that state for their own purposes.
VA didn;t turn left because a lot of money was spent, it’s been trending tht way for 20 years. The fact that so much money was spent anyway gives one pause. They poured so much into a state that basically has been turning into MD for years because they really don’t have the firm support they need
the dems firmly believe gun control is a winner this time around….and in some places, at least…they may be right…
Just think every billionaire is 1 banana peel away from ETERNITY😄😎😏
Bloomturd’s campaign was over before he announced.
I wish him a long, expensive, and ultimately fruitless campaign.
Some things really are zero-sum. Every dollar he throws at running for president is a dollar not used to buy initiatives and referenda.
Bloomberg is a happy little fascist who thinks he knows what is best for people and is committed to forcing them to behave the way he thinks they should behave. As a result, I’m pretty sure he absolutely hates Trump. Trump is going to hang the gun-control albatross around Bloomberg’s neck and make him carry that rotting carcass throughout the campaign. Once the public associates Bloomberg with gun-control and only gun-control, it’ll be over for him out in fly-over country.
Just an educated guess and observation, but I don’t believe he can win the election against trump. Sorry to burst your bubble Bloombag, people don’t like you and buying a gazillion dollars worth of ads everywhere won’t change that.
The Swine shall rule with Snakes.∆
Goes all in, with a losing hand that EVERYONE can see…WOW…I wanna sit down and play some Texas hold ’em with this idiot…
Stop and Frisk, banning 16oz sodas, Mayors Demand Action, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, March for our Lives, millions of dollars funneled to progressives and democrats who promise to back his pet agenda items, and he wants to buy the White House. I would bet that Raul Castro (Cuba) has a better chance than Bloomberg.
If the nanny mayor really wants to run a country with no guns, no fat people, and strong government controls, why doesn’t he just buy Venezuela? He could probably get a real good price!
Bloomburger is just another reason to make me want all politicians to be hung from the nearest tree..
Since the majority who make a career of politics. Start as poor congresspeople. They cant make it on a salary of $175K a year. And a 20 week work year. Full pay in retirement after 4 years or 2 terms.
They then become a senator or Gubbiner. Gubbiners don’t make much so a senate seats a better deal. Same pay but if you get to be Nancy Pelosi its 225K a year to do nothing as they have the past 3 years
Become a Dimocrat Libitard. Congress or senate you still get your pension. Become part of a swamp. And best of all!!!!!
The absolute LOWEST form of human life. A Liberal.
So go ahead Blumberger spend your money try to buy a seat in the round room.
At your age why not try??
If we are lucky you will be dead on your own soon enough. Then no one will still care about you.
From his own press release:
“I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,”
Well, damn… if that isn’t a winning platform, I just don’t know what is. If that’s all he’s got– “defeat Donald Trump” — I really don’t think he’s gonna get very far with this.
As far as “rebuild America”, if he means bring the country back together, I can’t picture a more divisive person sitting in the Oval Office– not even Hillary, though it would be a close match. I have no doubt “rebuild America” means remaking it in his own image. Ponder this — if he thinks he can remake America with his fat bank account, imagine what he’ll try to do on the world stage with the nuclear codes.
This guy has got to be the scariest psycho freak since… well, ever.
I look forward to reading the glowing reviews from Libertarians at Reason Magazine about how great it would be to have Bloomberg as President.
Since they hate Trump so much.
We’ve already got a racist billionaire authoritarian in office, we don’t need another one.
??? Nelson Rockefeller died years ago.
The list of billionaires that are owned by, and work for, the ruling elite is a very long one….
Perhaps you’ve been out of paying attention for a time, but it didn’t start with the Rockefeller’s and the Bronfman’s, and it won’t end with the Mellon’s, Carnegie’s, and the Trump’s either.
What, wait, what, he died years ago? He voted in the last three Chicago elections.
It’s a wash.
The Democrats don’t want a near-as-damnit Trump, they want the anti-Trump…and the despicable plutocrat is too close to the Trumpster, I figure.
At the same time, one more voice on a national platform beating the drum for gun control isn’t helpful to us, either.
After all, the big lie repeated often enough, eventually gets mistaken for the truth.
He needs to not be nominated. Or run as a third party and steal Democratic votes. His ad about Trump’s failure should big misfire. The fact that he RECOVERED from failures is an important part.
I finally heard sensible words emanating from Sanders’ and Warren’s lips. I guess Old Bloomie is capable of performing miracles after all. I guess his next act will be to purchase a beatification from the Vatican. Who knows if he spends enough money he might become a mortal citizen once his cash runs out.
This “pronoun” of a New Yorker is trying to buy his way in to the 2020 election. His face and bull crap are on every TV channel and of course it’s on YouTube. I WILL NOT COMPLY.
“Republican-turned-Independent-turned Democrat.”
You do realize that Trump was a “Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican”, right? And any moral minded Republican shakes their head at this madman in office, yet still publically endorses him. Neither of these 2 should be president. Remember there are still many pro-gun Democrats.
Maybe they should run for office.
Every one of the candidates in the race has espoused some level of idiocy with regards to guns. Bernie if the least offensively stupid on that front, and even he is embracing gun control measures he rightfully scoffed at not too many years ago.
The Democrats are lost in the woods right now.
*is
Fucking edit button grumble grumble.
Name one pro gun democrat that will not toe the party line on a vote I will wait.
Dear Lord in Heaven. After a long and bitterly divided primary, let Bloomberg win the Dem nomination. Let a man who supports Stop and Frisk and once said that young black men shouldn’t be allowed to own guns be the one who runs against Trump. A law an order type. Like an old, white, rich, male, racist version of Kamala Harris.
Amen
“….. Jessica Craven, 51, the legislative lead for her Moms Demand Action…” .. craven… ha!
1: lacking the least bit of courage :contemptibly fainthearted… craven mercenaries who would not fight …— Thomas Fleming
2archaic : DEFEATED, VANQUISHED
Bloomberg is JEWISH