Audio recordings leaked to CNN reveal billionaire Mike Bloomberg calling progressives, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, “scary,” and admitting he wanted Republican Mitt Romney to beat President Barack Obama in 2012, despite having endorsed Obama for re-election. Bloomberg made the remarks at a private, closed door Goldman Sachs event in 2016.
The former Republican NYC mayor turned independent also told supporters at the 150-year old $1.3 trillion international bank and investment house that had he run for president in 2016 he would have done so to “defend the banks,” which he also referred to as his “peeps.”
Bloomberg became a Democrat in 2018.
Asked about the rise of the far right in Europe Bloomberg chose to address the state of American politics.
“The left is arising. The progressive movement is just as scary,” he says in the audio. “Elizabeth Warren on one side. And whoever you want to pick on the Republicans on the right side?”
The Bloomberg campaign has confirmed the authenticity of his remarks, but a spokesperson claims Bloomberg’s comments about banks were “a joke.”
The remarks in context do not appear to make his claim of wanting to “defend the banks” actually a joke, rather, he admits it would have been unpopular.
“Well, to start, my first campaign platform would be to defend the banks, and you know how well that’s gonna sell in this country,” Bloomberg said, apparently as a “joke,” in his remarks.
“But seriously,” he continued, “somebody’s gotta stand up and do what we need. A healthy banking system that’s going to take risks because that’s what creates the jobs for everybody. And nobody’s willing to say that. The trouble is, these campaigns in this day and age, really are about slogans and not about issues anymore. And in this election you’re going to see people are voting and they either love or hate, mostly hate both, but who you hate the least. That’s what they’re going to vote for. And they’re not going to vote on issues.”
Another “joke” Bloomberg made was using Predator drones on “everybody that’s annoyed me or screwed me for the last 74 years, and bang-bang-bang-bang.”
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Image by Asia Society via Flickr and a CC license