Democratic Candidates React to Michael Bloomberg's Potential Run

From Town & Country

The Democratic primary is about to get a little bit more crowded. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that former New York City mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg is contemplating running for president in 2020. A Bloomberg campaign would undoubtedly shake up the race. Here's what existing candidates from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to Andrew Yang and Amy Kloubuchar have said about it so far:

Elizabeth Warren

Shortly after the New York Times reported that Bloomberg was actively preparing to enter the race, Warren tweeted at the former New York City mayor.

She wrote:

"Welcome to the race, @MikeBloomberg! If you're looking for policy plans that will make a huge difference for working people and which are very popular, start here:" and linked to her new "calculator for billionaires," on her campaign website.

"Some billionaires seem confused about how much they would pay under Elizabeth’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax. Don’t worry, now we have a calculator for that too," reads the tool.

Within the multi-step survey, if you initially click that you are a billionaire, it takes you to a screen which has an option titled "If you're Michael Bloomberg click here."

Should you click that link, it automatically fills out the net worth $52,000,000,000. If Bloomberg actually filled out the tool, he'd then get a message telling him:

Andrew Yang

During an appearance on CNN this week, Andrew Yang was asked about Bloomberg getting in the race. He responded saying he thinks the former New York City mayor will have a difficult time connecting with voters.

"I'm friendly with Mike, and he's a great philanthropist, was a really stellar mayor. But I will say it's gonna be very, very difficult for him to jump in right now and somehow replace the thousands of conversations that many of the candidates have had with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa and around the country, with ad buys. There are limits to what money can do... I think he's going to have his work cut out for him."

He also joked that "it's probably going to change the price of advertising."

Amy Kloubuchar

During a radio interview in Minneapolis, Amy Klobuchar addressed the news that Bloomberg was considering seeking the presidency.

"I welcome him to the race if he decides to run," said Klobuchar, in an interview with WCCO Morning News with Dave Lee.

"It came out of nowhere, actually, because he had said he wasn't going to run before," she said.

She also reacted to his advisor Howard Wolfson's comments that the existing field of Democratic candidates was "not well positioned" to win the general election.

"I have a lot of respect for him, but, I think, I really don't like how he said he has to get in there and basically save the day," Klobuchar said. "I think we have a lot of good candidates running. Many of them have shown nationally that they can win. I know I can win in the middle of the country."

She also commented on his net worth.

"I don't have as much money as he does, nor does my husband," she said. "That's okay. America hasn't actually, usually, voted for the wealthiest person."

Bernie Sanders

While Sanders has yet to overtly comment on Bloomberg's potential candidacy, he did tweet "The billionaire class is scared and they should be scared," following reports that the former New York City mayor (whose net worth is upwards of $50 billion) was considering a run.

Donald Trump

He's certainly not a Democrat, but Trump, too, has sounded off on a potential Bloomberg challenge in the general election. "He’s not going to do well but I think he’s going to hurt [former Vice President Joe] Biden actually,” Trump said of his potential opposition. “There’s nobody I’d rather run against than little Michael.”

Trump also added: “He doesn’t have the magic to do well...Little Michael will fail.”

As other candidates comment on Bloomberg's rumored plans to join the race, we'll continue to update this post.

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