Michael Bloomberg’s recent surge in the polls, showing he is a serious candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, virtually guaranteed the former New York City mayor would be subject to increased scrutiny.
That premise began to crystallize last week as Bloomberg’s rivals turned up the attacks and he faced a fresh stop and frisk controversy. Yet the threat of a real five-alarm fire for his candidacy may have been diffused when, within hours of an extensive report about Bloomberg’s alleged comments and treatment of women, the influential Drudge Report drew eyes toward another story about the billionaire.
“EXCLUSIVE: BLOOMBERG CONSIDERS HILLARY RUNNING MATE,” the banner of the highly trafficked website blared in all capital letters on Saturday.
It was quite the scoop for the Drudge Report, founded by the reclusive Matt Drudge, which rose to prominence during the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal in the 1990s. Nowadays, the right-leaning website mainly aggregates other outlets’ stories with snappy headlines. But it still puts out the occasional scoop, including one in fall 2018, when another woman came forward to accuse then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
In the latest exclusive, the Drudge Report stated, sources in Bloomberg’s orbit spilled the beans.
“Sources close to Bloomberg campaign tell DRUDGE REPORT that candidate is considering Hillary Clinton as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be formidable force,” the website said of the developing story. “DRUDGE has learned that Bloomberg himself would go as far as to change his official residence from New York to homes he owns in Colorado or Florida, since the electoral college makes it hard for a POTUS and VPOTUS from the same state.”
Team Bloomberg did not deny the story. A spokeswoman for Bloomberg declined to comment on the report when the Washington Examiner reached out.
The revelation about the potential 2020 ticket follows months of the Drudge Report playing up comments the former secretary of state has made in recent months suggesting she is contemplating any sort of rematch against President Trump, who bested her in 2016.
Days earlier, as former Vice President Joe Biden’s misfortunes in Iowa and New Hampshire appeared to open the door to a candidate such as Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor was hit with the emergence of a 2015 recording of him defending the policy of stop and frisk, which critics deride as disproportionately targeting minorities. In the comments, which he made during a speech to the Aspen Institute, Bloomberg also claimed that 95% of all “murders, murderers and murder victims” are “male, minorities, 16 to 25.”
The remarks were amplified by Trump, who retweeted the clip and called Bloomberg a “total racist” before deleting it, and provided fodder for the Biden camp.
Bloomberg apologized for his defense of stop and frisk in November prior to entering the 2020 presidential race, and he did so again in a statement last week, saying “this issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.”
Bloomberg was put back under the microscope when the Washington Post published an in-depth story about complaints of sexual harassment against him and accusations that there was a toxic culture at his company, Bloomberg LP.
The 77-year-old has faced several lawsuits from female employees who have alleged that the former New York City mayor maintained a hostile workplace for women in the office in the 1990s. Three of the lawsuits against the company are still open, but the women involved in the lawsuits are bound by confidentiality agreements and cannot speak about the circumstances.
Bloomberg’s refusal to abandon the nondisclosure agreements has been used a cudgel by 2020 rivals such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said the arrangements allow rich men to “hide bad things they’ve done.”
The report Saturday detailed a litany of alleged inappropriate comments made by Bloomberg to female aides. In one particular instance, Bloomberg was accused of responding to the news that a subordinate was pregnant by suggesting she “kill it” and then complained about the number of pregnant women employed at the company.
Bloomberg, a late entry to the Democratic race, has seen surging poll numbers despite not being on the ballot for the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary, the nation’s first litmus tests for those vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.
A RealClearPolitics national average of polls has Bloomberg in third place at 14.2% behind Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
