‘I saw a guy so disconnected from his own reality that it was jarring to me…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Billionaire Michael Bloomberg ended his brief presidential flirtation after a half-billion-dollar campaign ended in massive disappointment on Super Tuesday, NBC News reported.
It was a “short” campaign. https://t.co/Cu3bX1jMiE
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 4, 2020
The former New York City mayor, who entered politics as a Republican before pivoting to the far Left with radical views in areas like gun control and climate change, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in what is shaping out to be a two-person race between him and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Despite flooding the airwaves with messaging, his self-financed campaign proved tone-deaf in many areas, alienating and insulting voters on both sides of the aisle while falsely attempting to brand himself as a “moderate” alternative.
He skipped out on the first four nominating contests—in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina—deeming them a waste of time for being too conservative.
However, during his only two debate performances, he was excoriated by his Democratic rivals over his questionable track record of sexist interactions with female staff members.
All seemed put off by yet another liberal elitist attempting to “buy” the election and holding himself to a different standard than those he was attempting to woo.
During a Fox News town hall just prior to the Tuesday primaries, Bloomberg further revealed his disconnect with audiences, observed Rush Limbaugh, longtime conservative radio pundit and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
“I saw a guy who thinks he’s the Beatles who is barely Cyndi Lauper,” observed Limbaugh in his Tuesday broadcast. “I saw a guy who thinks the world revolves around him when 95% of the American people have no idea who he is. I saw a guy so disconnected from his own reality that it was jarring to me.”
When questioned during the town hall why he supported draconian gun regulations but justified having a well-armed security detail, Bloomberg responded, “Look, I probably get 40 or 50 threats every week, OK, and some of them are real. That just happens when you’re the mayor of New York City or you’re very wealthy and if you’re campaigning for president of the United States.”
Limbaugh said Bloomberg failed to distinguish himself from current President Donald Trump, also a wealthy New Yorker, although his campaign hinged on winning over disaffected Trump voters.
“He doesn’t disagree with a lot of what Trump’s doing,” Limbaugh said. “He’s just jealous Trump’s doing it and he isn’t.”
In the aftermath of the Super Tuesday losses—which saw him win only American Samoa, a US territory in the Pacific—Bloomberg still appeared to be clinging to hopes that a disputed contest between Sanders and Biden could result in a path to victory for him via brokered convention.
“It’s the only way I can win,” he told reporters, noting that it was the delegates and not the voters who truly mattered.
Several other former rivals appeared to have brokered deals with Biden on Monday in return for endorsements, leaving open the possibility that the business and media mogul could secure a plum Cabinet post in a hypothetical Biden administration.
But Bloomberg’s biggest impact likely remains his return to the role of left-wing mega-donor. Along with hedge-fund investors Tom Steyer, who also recently dropped out of the race; and the controversial George Soros, who chose to sit out the primary race, Bloomberg is one of the top Democratic donors ever.
His millions have helped sway races in areas like Virginia, which he helped turn solid blue for the first time in decades last year with a flood of cash.
The formerly cash-strapped Biden will need considerable support in the general election to overcome the fundraising gap that Trump has been able to build, largely on the back of House Democrats’ partisan impeachment push.