People in 2020 Democrat Michael Bloomberg’s orbit think he just “isn’t that interesting,” calling him a bit “Asperger’s-y.”
The former New York City mayor was profiled in New York Magazine Saturday, and those close to him painted him as a boring man who can’t relate to other people’s pain.
“The thing about Mike is, he actually isn’t that interesting — he’s smart, and you can have a good time talking to him, but it’s like talking to any old Jewish relative of mine,” a former employee of his told the outlet. “The first time I met him, he started complaining about some soup he got that didn’t taste right. I just met the guy, and he was, like, complaining about his sweet-and-sour soup.”
Bloomberg does, however, have a fun side when he’s indulged in some wine but only for so long.
“Mike gets loosey-goosey on wine, visibly shining, but if you really try to get him to open up then, sure enough he gets flustered and retreats into his shell,” a reporter said.
New York Magazine also spoke to a friend of Bloomberg, who said the former mayor has difficulty empathizing with others because he’s a bit “Asperger’s-y,” which allegedly contributed to his confusion over backlash about his controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Friends said that Bloomberg claims he feels bad about implementing the policy but that he doesn’t understand why he’s not lauded for his gun control policies.
“What he says privately is, ‘I was sitting with mothers of boys who were being shot. They said their sons were scared in the projects and had guns to protect them, so I thought you’ve got to get rid of the guns. The guns are killing people,’” one friend said. “But he didn’t get the social impact of stopping kids 70 times in high school.”
The former mayor’s campaign has spent a whopping $409 million, with most of the cash going toward ads, according to campaign disclosure forms. However, he’s behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in national polling averages.
