Failed Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was slammed on Thursday night after he called out President Donald Trump for allegedly not paying contractors while he was in the business world, which Bloomberg also allegedly did.
“Trump says we should vote for him because he’s a great business man. Really?” Bloomberg said. “He drove his companies into bankruptcy six times, always leaving behind customers and contractors who were cheated and swindled and stopped doing business with him. Well this time, all of us are paying the price.”
Journalist Yashar Ali tweeted out a clip of Bloomberg’s words and wrote: “Infuriating hypocrisy on the most important night of the DNC. Bloomberg slams Trump for stiffing contractors/workers. Bloomberg himself stiffed campaign workers after promising them employment through the election. He had to be shamed into giving them healthcare through November.”
WATCH:
Infuriating hypocrisy on the most important night of the DNC
Bloomberg slams Trump for stiffing contractors/workers. Bloomberg himself stiffed campaign workers after promising them employment through the election
He had to be shamed into giving them healthcare through November pic.twitter.com/SkM91wFuQQ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 21, 2020
NPR reported in late March:
Former campaign workers for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign have filed two separate proposed class-action lawsuits, alleging that the thousands of staffers laid off this month had been promised to be paid through the general election in November.
One lawsuit, filed by Donna Wood, a former field organizer for Bloomberg’s campaign in Florida, alleges that the campaign misled employees, recruiting them to work for Bloomberg under false pretenses and had failed to pay the necessary overtime. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York City.
…
A second lawsuit alleges that thousands of field organizers were fraudulently encouraged to accept jobs with Bloomberg’s campaign with the promise of guaranteed salaries through November. That lawsuit, from three former Bloomberg staffers, Alexis Sklair, Nathaniel Brown and Sterling Rettke, was also filed in federal court in New York City.
Matthew Jeweler, who worked as a regional organizing director, gave up a career that he had for a decade to work for Bloomberg, said: “I honestly don’t know if I would have taken the job if it weren’t for that specific guarantee, because I knew I wanted to work on the general election.”
Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign on March 4 after spending more than $1 billion in the failed effort to earn the Democrat nomination for president.
Politico reported that after Bloomberg reneged on his promise to pay staffers through November that he eventually transferred “$18 million to the Democratic National Committee instead to bolster the party committee’s field program.”
“The big transfer to the DNC also pushed the boundaries of a campaign finance law and sparked a FEC complaint from Republicans,” Politico added. “As a regular citizen, Bloomberg would not be able to donate such a massive sum to the DNC or any other groups that have campaign finance limits. But presidential campaigns can transfer unlimited amounts to their national party committee — and a DNC lawyer argued that the transfer was in the clear because Bloomberg donated the money to his presidential campaign while he was still running, which then gave the money to the DNC after he dropped out.”