Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) unloaded on former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg in a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saturday night, lashing out that the Democrat billionaire whom he believes is trying to deny him what is rightfully his: the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Saturday night, Sanders attended the Nevada Democratic Party’s “Kick-Off to Caucus,” a gala event launching the party’s effort to get out the vote ahead of next Saturday’s all-important Nevada caucus — a contest Sanders is now, as of Saturday, expected to win narrowly over former Vice President Joe Biden, who has led the state since joining the presidential contest back in April of 2019.
It’s also the first contest where Bloomberg, who has spent more than $300 million of his own fortune on winning the presidential election, made the ballot deadline, and the first time he will go head to head against Sanders and Biden.
“We will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Donald Trump if that candidate pursued, advocated for, and enacted racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear,” Sanders snapped, referring to Bloomberg.
“We will not defeat Donald Trump with a candidate who in 2015 stated, and I quote, ‘I, for example, am not in favor, have never been in favor, of raising the minimum wage,'” Sanders continued.
Sanders has, it seems, dropped his lines about “millionaires and billionaires” since becoming a millionaire in 2019. In his rants against the wealthy elite, he’s saying only “billionaires” now, according to an analysis by CNBC, but Bloomberg’s sudden appearance on national polls has clearly given Sanders a “billionaire” to zero in on.
Concluding his remarks Saturday night, he called Bloomberg not just wealthy, but “boring,” per Fox News: “Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump.”
Sanders has reason to worry about Bloomberg. As recently as Saturday, Washington, D.C.- based political outlets were reporting that Democrats are privately panicking over a Sanders nomination, worried that the Vermont socialist is too extreme to compete with President Donald Trump, and that Sanders won’t just lose the presidency, but threaten down-ticket races, as well, and they’re looking for a suitable alternative.
Politico reports that Texas Democrats are particularly worried that the possibility of a socialist president will draw out Texas Republicans who have been a declining force in recent years.
“There is overall uncertainty which is growing. The real fear for Texas D’s remains Sanders,” one Texas political expert told the outlet. “’We’d be f***ed’ — that’s what they’re saying. The drain at the top goes down to the bottom.”
But Bloomberg is, by no means, a sure bet against Trump. Last week, cracks began to appear in Bloomberg’s carefully crafted public image, most of them of his own making. Interviews surfaced of Bloomberg defending controversial “stop-and-frisk” crime control policies, as did stories about the former New York City mayor, allegedly bullying former employees and even going so far as to suggest a newly pregnant aide get an abortion.
Bloomberg apologized for his “stop-and-frisk” comments last week and denies the other stories, but there’s no doubt those will dog him in a presidential contest against Trump.
Polling in Nevada is notoriously difficult given the distance between caucus participants — many of whom live in rural and desert areas far from major cities — and their traditional skepticism of polling agencies. But Sanders, by all accounts, is leading in Nevada and on the rise. The official Nevada caucuses are on Saturday, February 22nd, but participants may begin voting as early as this Sunday morning.