NEW YORK | Billionaire and ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg launched Sunday in the race for the White House, relaunching with his candidacy the already tight competition for the Democratic nomination.
“I am a presidential candidate to beat Donald Trump and rebuild America,” said on his website the 77-year-old businessman, who had openly increased the preparations for his campaigning in recent weeks.
His immense fortune acquired in financial information – some 50 billion dollars – makes him a suitor capable of shaking up the race, still very open with 18 candidates ready to challenge the current tenant of the White House in November 2020, without obvious favorite.
“We cannot afford four more years of immoral and thoughtless action on the part of Donald Trump,” Bloomberg said on Sunday.
“It represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins a new mandate, we might never get over it, ”added the official at the head of the New York metropolis from 2002 to 2013.
Four septuagenarians against Trump
Mr. Bloomberg’s entry on the track will not fail to raise questions about the advanced age of the candidates, with now four in their seventies vying to dislodge Donald Trump – also in his seventies – from the White House.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, leads the race ahead of progressives Elizabeth Warren, 70, and Bernie Sanders, 78. Young mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, is in fourth place, according to national polls.
Mr. Bloomberg does the math that he can drill between Mme Warren and Mr. Sanders, both considered far too left-wing by part of the Democratic electorate, and Mr. Biden, weakened by questions about his physical condition and caught up in the Ukrainian affair which earned Donald Trump proceedings in dismissal.
The entry into the race of Mr. Bloomberg did not elicit an immediate reaction from Donald Trump, who contented himself with retweeting criticisms of Republican sympathizers against the former mayor of New York.
The US president reacted with disdain to a possible candidacy of Michael Bloomberg in early November.
“Little Michael will fail,” he said in reference to the size of the billionaire, about 1.70 m. “I think he’s actually going to hurt Biden,” he added.
Very active in the fight against climate change, against the proliferation of firearms and for access to health care, Michael Bloomberg announced in March that he was giving up running to, among other things, not to undermine the chances by Mr. Biden.
His turnaround would therefore appear as a clear signal that he seriously doubts the latter’s chances.
His candidacy also represents an ethical headache for his news agency, which announced that it would cover his boss’s campaign, but that it was suspending unsigned editorials, which reflected the views of the American billionaire.
Founded in 1990, the Bloomberg News agency has 2,400 journalists, a news feed, magazines, a radio station, podcasts, a television channel, and comprehensive coverage of political news, including six journalists assigned to the White House.
“No other presidential candidate has had a media outlet of this size,” editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said in a note to colleagues, acknowledging that it “would not be easy for the editorial staff.”
Asked on the ABC channel, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway ruled that Mr. Bloomberg’s entry into the race showed that the candidates of the Democratic camp are “disappointing”.
“We welcome everyone in the race”, for her part indicated the Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar on the ABC channel, before specifying: “I am not sure that the playing card is that of” I have more ‘money than the guy in the White House ”, I think people want someone different”.
Ninth world fortune according to Forbes, Mike Bloomberg on Sunday launched a campaign of television commercials of 31 million dollars, a record considered in advance anti-democratic by the socialist candidate Bernie Sanders.
–
