Early Tuesday morning, President Trump tweeted then deleted newly uncovered audio that features Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defending his stop-and-frisk policies during an appearance at the Aspen Institute in 2015. In the audio, released by podcast host Benjamin Dixon, Bloomberg appears to advocate for targeting minorities.
“WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!” Trump tweeted along with the audio, before deciding to pull the tweet.
“95% of your murders – murderers and murder victims fit one M.O.,” Bloomberg allegedly states in the audio. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city and that’s where the real crime is.”
“You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed,” he continued. “You want to spend the money on a lot of cops in the streets. Put those cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods.”
“So, one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods,” he stated. “Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the walls and frisk them. And then they start say[ing], ‘Oh I don’t want to get caught.’ So they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”
“Share this far and wide,” Dixon captioned the video in a tweet Monday. “Unless the mainstream media picks it up, it will be isolated to twitter.”
Share this far and wide. Unless the mainstream media picks it up, it will be isolated to twitter. pic.twitter.com/Fm0YCi4ZRy
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 11, 2020
As The Daily Wire reported, Dixon followed up his post by tweeting out a 2015 article from The Aspen Times, noting that “Bloomberg requested the video not be released.”
“Michael Bloomberg representatives have asked the Aspen Institute not to distribute footage of his recent appearance in Aspen, where the three-term New York City mayor made pointed comments concerning minorities and gun control,” The Aspen Times reported. “Both the Institute and GrassRoots TV, the organization that filmed the event, confirmed Thursday that they will not broadcast the footage online or on television as planned.”
“We basically honor the wishes of our speakers, and Mayor Bloomberg preferred that we not use the video for broadcast,” the Aspen Institute’s Jim Spiegelman told the outlet in an email. “He did not give a reason nor did we have any reason to ask for one. We often feature speakers who prefer that their presentations not be videotaped.”
Bloomberg requested the video not be released.
Perhaps because of his explanation for #stopandfrisk, admitting that all the cops are sent to minority neighborhoods and, “yes we’re arresting minorities for marijuana” but “that’s where the crime is,” https://t.co/MptDeupSbi
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 10, 2020
In its report on the event, The Aspen Times provides a summary of his remarks. “Appearing before nearly 400 people in Aspen on Feb. 5, the billionaire founder of Bloomberg L.P. argued that in order to save lives, police should seize guns from male minorities between ages 15 and 25,” the outlet reports.
“These kids think they’re going to get killed anyway because all their friends are getting killed,” the outlet quotes Bloomberg as saying. “So they just don’t have any longterm focus or anything. It’s a joke to have a gun. It’s a joke to pull a trigger.”