On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, former mayor of New York City and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg spoke took aim at Republican President Donald Trump's business failures, before and during his presidency.
"Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground?" Bloomberg asked. "Who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger, and who spends more time tweeting than working?"
"If the answer is no," he continued, "why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?"
Bloomberg then focused on Trump's self-professed business acumen.
"Trump says we should vote for him because he's a great businessman. Really?" Bloomberg said. "He drove his companies into bankruptcy six times, always leaving behind customers and contractors who have been cheated and swindled and stopped doing business with him."
He also mentioned Trump's inability to get legislation passed for national infrastructure repair. In February 2018, Trump introduced a $200 billion plan with $1.5 trillion pledged from the private sector, but the plan stalled out after one of his negotiating conditions was a pledge from Democratic House leaders to stop investigating him for impeachment charges, according to The Guardian.
"Well, this time, all of us are paying the price, and we can't let him get away with it again," Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg said that Democrats would roll back Trump's tax cuts benefiting the wealthy to help fund national initiatives to train out-of-work adults, make college more affordable and invest in U.S. research and development for innovative, American-made products.
The 78-year-old billionaire's Democratic primary campaign ran from November 24, 2019 to March 4, 2020, just over three months.
In November 2019, a Bloomberg spokesperson pledged, "Mike will spend whatever it takes to defeat Donald Trump. The nation is about to see a very different campaign than we've ever seen before."
Bloomberg, who is worth an estimated $52 billion, has spent an estimated $350 million for the Democratic campaign, although an estimated $275 million of that amount was spent on anti-Trump ads during his primary campaign.
Michael Nutter, the national political chair of Bloomberg's primary campaign, told NPR that Bloomberg's pledge for "whatever it takes" didn't just refer to a set dollar amount but also where and how Bloomberg invests his money.
"[The remaining investments are] still being determined and decided and figured out," Nutter told NPR. "I mean, this is politics. You don't just kind of throw the money out the window and hope it lands in the right places. Mike makes strategic investments to change outcomes using data and evidence."
In September of the 2018 midterm elections, Bloomberg made donations in 24 Democratic House races in competitive districts. In 21 of those races, the Democratic candidates won.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
