The Michael Bloomberg campaign posted a series of bizarre tweets during Tuesday night’s Democrat presidential debate broadcast by CNN in Des Moines, Iowa.
The former mayor of New York City was not among the six candidates vying for the Democrat nomination on the debate stage, having decided to avoid both the February 3 Iowa caucuses and the February 11 New Hampshire primary. His strategy instead has been to flood the country with television ads, all aimed at winning the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries in 14 states, including California and Texas.
To date Bloomberg has reportedly spent over $150 million on his campaign, and he has promised to spend much more of his estimated $50 billion fortune to defeat President Trump in 2020, either as the party’s nominee or in support of the party’s nominee. He has risen in some national polls to support from five percent to seven percent.
But his campaign’s flurry of dozens of tweets during the two hours of the Democrat debate raise the question if he has significantly damaged his brand as a serious candidate.
The tweets were so unusual, many thought the Bloomberg campaign twitter account had been hacked, but the campaign subsequently announced there had been no hack and it was all part of the campaign’s communication plan.
Tuesday night’s tweet storm began unusually, when candidate Bloomberg retweeted the campaign twitter account’s announcement of a series of “fun tweets” coming:
We promised to tweet stuff. We promised fun stuff. We promised the best stuff. Here we go. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/pFX0mNulzt
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
Here is a sampling of the “fun” tweets from the campaign,:
Observers believe the turning point of the 1976 election is when Gerald Ford debated while eating a sausage calzone. #DebateFacts #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/cZYvU4r6Px
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
As a child, Mike was in the Boy Scouts. So, he wasn’t always the crazy, wild man you see today. #BloombergFacts #DemDebate
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
Like Bruce Wayne, Mike is a cosmopolitan philanthropist. As far as whether Mike dons a disguise to fight crime at night, we are legally not allowed to say. #BloombergFacts #DemDebate
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
Let’s make this a little more interactive.
HELP MIKE PICK HIS SECRET SERVICE CODENAME:— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
After finishing his final term as mayor, Mike went on to portray Dr. Jürgen Shenk in 168 episodes of the German soap opera in “Arzt Einrichtung Stadt.” #BloombergFacts #DemDebate
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
POLL TIME!
WHICH WILD ANIMAL WOULD BE MOST FUN TO RELEASE ONTO THE DEBATE STAGE WITHOUT WARNING?— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
Much like a real wolf, debate moderator Wolf Blitzer can devour an elk carcass in one sitting. #DebateFacts #DemDebate
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) January 15, 2020
Bloomberg’s personal twitter account retweeted another of the campaign’s Tuesday night tweets:
I see everyone at campaign HQ is hard at work. https://t.co/OZYkmuseJe
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 15, 2020
At the end of the evening, Bloomberg tweeted that his campaign staff’s tweets were designed to capture the attention of voters on a night he was not a participant in the CNN hosted debate of six other contenders for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020.
Now that my team @mike2020 has your attention, I think it’s important that you see what @realDonaldTrump said to voters in Wisconsin tonight.
Battleground states like Wisconsin will decide the 2020 election.
This is not a joke.https://t.co/ktFPQCIeqe pic.twitter.com/74GoaKId1z
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 15, 2020
The campaign did succeed in capturing the attention of many voters with Tuesday night’s tweets.
It remains to be seen, however, whether that had the effect of improving or hurting Bloomberg’s chances of capturing the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020.
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