If voters are turned off by the leading Republican candidates and still on the fence about Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, Bloomberg could really tip the scales. In early 2014, shortly after he left City Hall, he told NBC’s “Today” show that he wouldn’t run in 2016, saying, “I think it’s unlikely that you’d ever have a third-party candidate that would win”.
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DES MOINES/WASHINGTON U.S. presidential hopefuls on Sunday offered mixed reviews of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s potential independent White House run, with Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders saying it would add another billionaire like Republican Donald Trump to the field.
The former secretary of state said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that as she understands Bloomberg’s statement, he’ll consider running if Clinton does not win the nomination. “My reaction is, if Donald Trump wins and Mr. Bloomberg gets in, you’re going to have two multibillionaires running for president of the United States against me”, Sanders said on Meet the Press.
Part of Bloomberg’s motivation to enter the race stems from frustration with Clinton’s campaign, the source said.
Bloomberg, once a Republican who later declared himself an independent, also floated the possibility of a presidential candidacy in 2008, but won little support and abandoned the effort. “I would personally like to compete with Michael Bloomberg”, Trump told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in a phone interview Sunday morning.
Donald Trump says he’s as conservative as Ronald Reagan was and vowed to get along with people better than Republican rival Ted Cruz.
Asked whether she was familiar with the three-term NY mayor, Clinton supporter Beverly Williams, 55, said, “No, I’m not”.
Representatives for Bloomberg declined to comment on the former mayor’s plans for the presidential race. They met privately at Bloomberg’s offices a few months before Clinton announced her campaign last April, before an event announcing a philanthropic initiative to measure and track data about issues affecting women and girls.
On the Republican side, Trump and Cruz do appear, at this stage, to have a grip on the race.
Because of deadlines to get on a general-election ballot, he will make a decision one way or another by March, sources close to the former NY mayor told NPR and WNYC.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters”, he said. I think he might very well get in the race and I would love ton have him in the race.
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“Hillary and Jeb are the only two who know how to make the trains run”, Bloomberg said, after receiving honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
