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REPORT: Michael Bloomberg Preparing Multi-Million Dollar ‘Onslaught’ Against Bernie Sanders

   DailyWire.com
NASHVILLE, TN - FEBRUARY 12: Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg delivers remarks during a campaign rally on February 12, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. Bloomberg is holding the rally to mark the beginning of early voting in Tennessee ahead of the Super Tuesday primary on March 3rd.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is reportedly about to splash out tens of millions of dollars on a dedicated campaign to push Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) out of the running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

The “onslaught” as CNBC is calling it, will include “digital ads,” “op-eds,” and “surrogate TV appearances,” as well as a robust opposition research effort — something that Sanders has never been subjected to before.

“Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign plans to unleash its cash-flush media operation against Bernie Sanders in the wake of the Vermont senator’s resounding victory in the Nevada caucuses,” the business-focused outlet reported on Monday. “Senior aides to Bloomberg’s campaign have been discussing how they are going to use some of their resources against Sanders, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who declined to be named because these decisions were made in private.”

Cost is no object for Bloomberg, who has already pledged $500 million of his own money to his presidential campaign — a campaign that is now a crusade to dethrone Sanders, deny him the majority of available delegates ahead of the Democratic National Convention, robbing Sanders of winning the nomination outright and, likely, sending the nomination process to a second vote. The effort is expensive for Bloomberg, but barely cuts into his estimated $60 billion net worth.

Bloomberg, though, has yet to appear on a single primary ballot — and won’t appear on one until at least March 3, Super Tuesday. Nationally, he’s polling behind Sanders, 22% to 15%, but ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden, who was once thought of as the presumptive nominee.

The effor launched Monday with an ad targeting likely voters in South Carolina with information about Sanders’ ties to the National Rifle Association, an issue Sanders probably did not expect to resurface so soon, but one well within Bloomberg’s wheelhouse.

“The ad, posted to Bloomberg’s Twitter account, argues that Sanders was elected to Congress with the help of the NRA and has multiple times taken pro-gun stances in Congress,” Fox News said Monday. “The ad cites a 1990 letter by NRA chief Wayne LaPierre telling Vermont NRA members that Sanders is a better choice for Vermont than former Republican Rep. Peter Smith, who backed an assault-weapons ban.”

The ad accuses Sanders of taking money from gun-crazy millionaires and billionaires: “With that letter, and thousands of dollars in advertising, the NRA helped elect Bernie Sanders to Congress. Sanders voted with the NRA and opposed federal background checks by trying to block the Brady Bill 5 times.”

Fox News reports that “[c]ontrary to Bloomberg’s narrative, however, Sanders in 2012 received a D-minus rating from the NRA, according to records archived by Bloomberg’s own Everytown group. Sanders has also been a harsh critic of the NRA and the gun lobby in recent years,” neutralizing Bloomberg’s point somewhat.

Sanders won in Nevada, per CNBC, on the backs of an anti-billionaire message, targeting Bloomberg directly. But Democrats are begging Bloomberg to get further involved in the nomination process, fearing Sanders will run away with the nomination without a serious challenge, and hoping that the anti-billionaire message will be neutralized, nationally, by Bloomberg’s perceived status as a “moderate” (and that there is plenty of opposition research available against Sanders).

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