Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Thursday that his predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, won’t get the support of progressives if he decides to run for president in 2020 because he’s not a “real Democrat.”
“Democrats are looking for real Democrats,” de Blasio said during an unrelated City Hall press conference.
“I just don’t think Democrats are going to be attracted to someone who left our party 20 years ago and just came back.”
He cited the take-down in September’s primary of the state Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference, which historically sided with Republicans, as one reason why Democrats are looking for candidates far more progressive than Bloomberg.
Bloomberg announced Wednesday that he is changing his voter registration to Democrat, a possible signal that he’s weighing a presidential run.
The 76-year-old billionaire was a Democrat before he enrolled in the Republican Party to run for New York City mayor in 2001. In 2007, he left the Republican Party and declared himself a registered independent or unaffiliated voter as the party swung to the right.
De Blasio did offer Bloomberg some praise for “standing up to Trump” and putting in a lot of resources towards helping Democrats regain control of Washington.
However, Hizzoner also said Bloomberg is just too filthy rich to become the face of the Democratic Party.
“I think more and more Americans understand [there are] a lot of millionaires and billionaires who laughed all the way to the bank [after Trump was elected president in 2016], and I doubt they want to elect another billionaire after the experience they just had,” de Blasio said.
Bloomberg — who endorsed Hillary Clinton over President Trump in the 2016 election — is heavily invested in helping elect Democrats in congressional midterm elections on Nov. 6. He has vowed to spend at least $100 million — $80 million on House races and $20 million on Senate races.