Since news broke that Michael Bloomberg was taking steps toward making a late entry into the Democratic nomination battle, pundits have piled on to dismiss his chances, noting that his record and views are too moderate to win the nomination given the state of the party. Back in September, Bloomberg appeared to be in agreement.
In a Firing Line interview that aired Sept. 27, Margaret Hoover pressed him on his flirtations with running for president, specifically if he was doing any polling, noting that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (whose policies he’s been criticizing) was surging against Joe Biden.
At the time, he said he was not polling but explained that when he had contemplated a run earlier in the cycle, he had done some.
“The polls said I’m too moderate for the likely voters in the Democratic primary and so I could not win,” he explained. “And I just said, look, you got to understand what you can do and what you can’t do and make a decision and live with the decision.”
Back then, Bloomberg said it was too late for somebody to get in who had to raise money, seemingly implying that there was still time for him to make a late entry.
But when Hoover asked if he thought he had until November to decide, Bloomberg responded, “November would get to be pretty hard to do. I don’t know.”
It’s difficult to know exactly what may have changed Bloomberg’s mind, if it has in fact changed. Biden is still in roughly the same place in national polls that he was when Bloomberg made his comments. And Warren is drawing more scrutiny for her plans now than she was then.
Even if Bloomberg has concluded that Biden cannot go the distance, the broader composition of the Democratic electorate hasn’t changed since his earlier polling, which he says convinced him he couldn’t win.
Clip of the exchange below. Full interview and transcript here.
Billionaire @MikeBloomberg told @FiringLineShow in September that it would be “virtually impossible” for anyone to join the 2020 race “if they had to raise the money,” but noted that he could self-fund a campaign. At the time, he didn’t have plans to run, but now that’s changed. pic.twitter.com/l5rZLvM5Ab
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) November 8, 2019
