If one measure of a debate is the number of memorable moments a candidate is involved in, Wednesday night’s performance by Michael Bloomberg racked up serious points -- just not the kind he wanted.
Appearing on a debate stage in Las Vegas for the first time since launching his self-funded presidential campaign over 10 weeks ago, the former New York City mayor was unsurprisingly his opponents’ target, receiving a barrage of criticism. Everything was subject to scrutiny: from his record on the unconstitutional police tactic known as stop and frisk, to the nondisclosure agreements signed by women who sued his eponymous company for workplace harassment, even whether he, as a billionaire, has a right to exist.
While the other candidates have spent months jockeying for a chance to get a word in edgewise with double the number of people on stage, this was a first for Bloomberg, who has carefully crafted a campaign based on targeted television and social media ads. In Nevada, Bloomberg was finally forced to interact with his opponents, unscripted. He spent most of the night playing defense.
The attacks started in response to the opening question, posed to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who currently leads the Democratic field in Nevada, over why people should opt for his political revolution over Bloomberg’s more moderate managerial approach. While Sanders served up an answer straight from his stump speech on economic inequality, it was Senator Elizabeth Warren who took Bloomberg to task over his character.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians.' And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg,” said Warren. “Democrats take a huge risk if we take one arrogant billionaire and replace him with another.”
Seeking to reframe the discussion, Bloomberg warned that if Sanders was the nominee, it would guarantee Trump’s re-election. The two issues that matter most, he said, were who could beat Trump and who could do the job best in the White House. But before he could make his own case, Mayor Pete Buttigieg interjected.
“We’ve got to wake up as a party. We could wake up two weeks from today, the day after Super Tuesday, and the only candidates left standing will be Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg -- the two most polarizing figures on this stage,” said Buttigieg.
After that series of opening hits, the former mayor was scarcely heard from for more than 20 minutes. That was until the moderators brought up his record on stop and frisk in New York City, a policing tactic that disproportionately targed communities of color. The mayor said he was “embarrassed” that the policy “got out of control.” But in a bit of revisionist history, he said he decided to reduce its use by 95 percent. That claim was immediately rejected by fact checkers, who noted that it took a court order for the policy to change.
Questions about transparency also dogged Bloomberg. When it came to why he still hasn’t released his tax returns, he said it just takes a long time (when you’re a billionaire) and predicted they would be thousands of pages long.
“I can’t go to TurboTax,” he said. That answer sparked the ire of Senator Amy Klobuchar, who said she was looking at her husband in the audience since he does their taxes -- and they’re only a couple pages long.
He was also pressed on the workplace culture at the company he founded and built, including several lawsuits over harassment. In response, Bloomberg pointed to the woman with “big responsibilities” at his firm, philanthropy and during his time at City Hall.
But that answer was not enough for Senator Warren, who challenged him to release all the women who wanted to share their stories from nondisclosure agreements reached as part of legal settlements.
“We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who-knows-how-many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against,” Warren argued.
At one point the debate took an existential turn for Bloomberg, when the question was posed as to whether billionaires should exist. “I can’t speak for all billionaires,” he said, “All I know is I’ve been very lucky, made a lot of money and I’m giving it all away to make this country better, and a big chunk of it goes to the Democratic Party as well.” Pushed on whether he should be able to accumulate enough wealth to be a billionaire, Bloomberg said yes.
If there’s any bright spot coming out of this debate for the Bloomberg campaign, it’s that he gets a chance to flex his skills all over again next week. Democrats will debate again in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, February 25th. Nevada caucus day is February 22nd.
