Bloomberg joked in 2016 that his presidential “campaign platform would be to defend the banks”—and warned against “scary” progressives like Elizabeth Warren
of Bloomberg being interviewed at a private event hosted by Goldman Sachs in June 2016.
Later in the interview, Bloomberg answered a question about the rise of the far-right by instead interjecting his concerns about the progressive left, as emblematized by Warren. “The left is arising. The progressive movement is just as scary,” Bloomberg said, equating it with the far-right. “Elizabeth Warren on one side. And whoever you want to pick on the Republicans on the right side.
Warren also wasn't the only Democrat that Bloomberg had harsh words for. The business leader, who was then an Independent, took aim at then-Presidentin his Goldman Sachs remarks, criticizing his first term as president and saying that his endorsement of Obama in 2012 overwas “backhanded.” “The second Obama election I wrote a very backhanded endorsement of Obama,” Bloomberg said.
, who remember Bloomberg's relationship with Obama as much more in line with his 2016 comments. “I was triggered by the ad,” one former Obama official told my colleague, while a Democratic donor recalled that “Mike would have dinner parties and piss all over Obama when he was president.”Bloomberg's campaign confirmed the authenticity of the leaked audio to CNN, though they emphasized that the now-candidate's comments about “defend[ing] the banks” was “a joke.
The unearthed 2016 comments could hurt Bloomberg's efforts to combat his billionaire reputation on the campaign trail, as his campaign fights criticism that Bloomberg is an out-of-touch one-percenter whose presidency would protect his wealth and that of his rich friends. “Listen, I object every time I hear someone say, you know, ‘Billionaire Mike Bloomberg,’” Bloomberg campaign managerdescribing the candidate as a real-life Bruce Wayne and “the greatest philanthropist in New York.
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