On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who has endorsed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) slammed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as “the epitome of the power structure in this country” and someone who is trying to “buy an election” in a way no one ever has.
de Blasio said, “Michael Bloomberg represents the status quo. And it’s important to talk about it. He is using an inordinate amount of money, we’ve never seen anything like it in the history of the United States. But what it is masking is a lifetime of supporting those in power. He is the epitome of the power structure in this country.”
He added, “Let me tell you, he’s one of the richest people in the world and he pursued policies in New York City that made income inequality worse, that helped developers and big real estate folks and Wall Street at the expense of working people. And unfortunately, he had a number of policies, like stop and frisk, which were divisive.”
de Blasio further stated that it’s clear that “no one in American history has ever tried to buy an election the way that Mike Bloomberg is right now.”
He also said, “I’m Mike Bloomberg’s successor, and there some areas I agreed with him on, like public health and climate change. He did some very good work. But he did some things that really, really hurt New York City [that] I’ve spent six years undoing. And I’ll tell you something, I don’t think it’s right for anyone to use their personal wealth, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, to buy any office. I’m glad when he helps fellow Democrats. I’m glad that he said he will help whoever is the eventual nominee. But, Kate, this is not what our democracy is supposed to be about, that if some guy gamed the system to make billions of dollars that that gives him the best chance of being president. That’s not what America is about.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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