Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken aim at the Democratic Party for covering up President Biden’s condition all the way through the middle of this year, before nominating Vice President Kamala Harris as her replacement House nominee. White, just a few months before Tuesday’s election.
Bloomberg wrote an op-ed on Thursday analyzing a second Donald Trump presidency after Trump’s landslide victory over Harris on Tuesday.
The former mayor suggested Democrats “may wonder how exactly they lost to Trump,” who he called “a sick 78-year-old who most of the country despises.”
“Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to cover up President Joe Biden’s weaknesses until they became undeniable on live TV,” Bloomberg wrote in the article.
He added that it was not “ideal” for “party elders” to replace him with Harris, “a candidate who had not received any electoral votes and had failed decisively in a previous presidential race.”
Biden, 81, ended his re-election campaign in July, weeks after a spectacular debate performance sent his party into a tailspin and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to serve as a candidate. reliable.
But polling a long time ago showed that many Americans worried about his age.
About 77% of Americans said in August 2023 that Biden was too old to be effective for another four years, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Public Affairs Center.
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The president bowed out on July 21 after receiving not-so-subtle pushback from Democratic Party leaders, including former President Barack Obama and former Speaker of the California House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Biden endorsed Harris and handed over his campaign operation to him.
Last month, the New York Times reported that Bloomberg donated $50 million to a nonprofit that was supporting Harris’ presidential bid.
The former mayor, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was reluctant to make the donation, which was far less than he spent in previous election cycles during Trump’s first presidency.
In private conversations, Bloomberg, the 82-year-old tycoon who has a net worth that Forbes estimates at $105 billion, told associates he was unimpressed with Harris.
Democrats were alarmed that Bloomberg insisted on secrecy when making the $50 million donation to Harris, according to the Times.
Before the donation, Bloomberg had given just $47 million to help Democrats in congressional races — less than half of the $95 million he donated in 2018 to help the party win the midterm elections.
Bloomberg gave more than $250 million combined in 2018 and 2020 in an effort to thwart Trump, the Times reported.
That excludes the $1.1 billion he spent on his presidential campaign, which failed in the Democratic primary in 2020. Still, he pledged to spend heavily to help defeat Trump.
In the 2020 election cycle, Bloomberg spent $100 million to boost Biden’s campaign in Florida. Trump ended up winning Florida handily.
This time, Bloomberg hesitated to donate after Biden stepped aside. It was only after Harris aides met with him at his headquarters and sought his advice on her economic and housing plan that he decided to make a donation, the Times reported.
By postal wire
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