Criticized for his fortune and summoned to explain embarrassing parts of his past, the billionaire claiming to the White House Michael Bloomberg struggled to respond, Wednesday, to a barrage of virulent attacks during a democratic debate with acrimonious tone. With several rivals playing their survival in the race, this debate for six candidates – the first in which Mr. Bloomberg participated – took on a rare intensity in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the third vote of the Democratic primaries will be held on Saturday .
“I would like to talk about our opponent. A billionaire who treats women with big chicks and lesbians with horse heads. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Michael Bloomberg,” said progressive senator Elizabeth Warren . She immediately accused him of having “supported racist policies”, in particular with reference to arbitrary arrests and searches (“stop-and-frisk”), accused of having caused an explosion of facies controls in New York when he was mayor of the city.
Mr. Bloomberg also had to justify himself on accusations of sexism emanating from ex-employees.
Faced with these attacks taken up by others on the set, Michael Bloomberg, 78, sought to run as the democrat most likely to win the presidential election on November 3. “Who can beat Donald Trump? And who can do the job if he gets to the White House? I would say I am the candidate who can do these two things,” said Bloomberg.
“A huge risk”
“Democrats take a huge risk if we just replace one arrogant billionaire with another,” said Warren, 70, on the contrary.
Having not faced debate for more than a decade, Bloomberg sometimes seemed to be on the sidelines, stammering, moving hesitantly to firmer accents. He presented himself as a former elected official capable of governing and as a generous philanthropist. He appeared too firm, sometimes, to the taste of the public.
Ninth richest man in the world in 2019 according to Forbes, with some 60 billion dollars, Michael Bloomberg presents himself as a candidate capable of rallying in the center. Entering the campaign very late in November, the head of the Bloomberg news agency finances his candidacy with hundreds of millions of dollars from his personal funds.
An extremely rare strategy
He opted for a strategy extremely rare in the history of the American primaries: to ignore the first four states which vote in February. It will therefore only enter the race during “Super Tuesday” on March 3, when 14 other states will vote. And without having yet presented himself to a single primary, he climbed to third place in the national polls. Which pushes these rivals to accuse him of having “bought” his place in the presidential campaign.
“Mike Bloomberg has a greater fortune than the poorest 125 million Americans”, said Mr. Sanders, 78. “It’s immoral”.
“I have made a lot of money and I will give everything to improve this country,” said Bloomberg. The billionaire has also been hit by his rivals for not having published his tax returns yet. Mr. Bloomberg tried to justify his delay by the magnitude of the task.
Former Republican who became independent before becoming a Democrat, he underlines his commitment to the fight against climate change, against violence by firearms and his proposals supposed to help minorities.
With excellent results in the first two states that voted, Iowa and New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders has now largely dethroned former moderate vice-president Joe Biden from the top of the polls for the Democratic nomination. The latter must absolutely make a good result Saturday in Nevada to stay in the saddle. Under pressure, he offered a good performance on Wednesday, but without sparking.
Also losing momentum, Elizabeth Warren has clearly gone on the offensive, exhausting not only the billionaire but also two moderate candidates who, the wind in their sails, threaten his candidacy: the ex-mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg and the Senator Amy Klobuchar.
After his successes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Buttigieg tried to present himself, at 38, as an alternative between two figures “who divide”: MM. Sanders and Bloomberg.
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