The billionaire and former New York City mayor, Mike Bloomberg, who went into the 2020 presidential race late and spent over $500 million on an unorthodox campaign, dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination but vowed to stay in the fight in an attempt to defeat President Donald Trump in November.
In a press release, Bloomberg wrote:
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that the candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.”
He also said in a statement:
“After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists,”
“But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life.”
Bloomberg stated that defeating the president means uniting behind the most viable Democratic candidate, which he deemed to be former Vice President Joe Biden.
Bloomberg remarked:
“I’ve known Joe for a very long time,”
“I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country — including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs.”
“I’ve had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life,”
“Today I am glad to endorse him — and I will work to make him the next president of the United States.”
Bloomberg joined the 2020 race in November later than any of his competitors and pitched himself to Democrats as a more moderate option to counter the rise of Sanders.
Bloomberg, with the slogan “Mike Will Get It Done,” ran on his business record, saying that the best man to take on President Donald Trump is a wealthier New York business leader.
Because of this, top Democrats who were worried about Biden’s unsteady footing and Sanders’ surge, endorsed Bloomberg’s candidacy, believing the former Republican could be the best hope at defeating Trump. But together with those endorsements was the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent helping to elect Democrats in 2018 and earlier, including in districts where local Democrats eventually backed the former mayor.
Bloomberg’s campaign functioned on its own for the first couple of months. By not running in the first four nominating states, he was largely divorced from the other Democratic campaigns for months. And though he focused his campaign solely on Trump, setting up a general election matchup in the eyes of the voters between the two, he was not actively running against the Republican President.
Bloomberg wrote on Twitter:
“We know many of the same people in NY. Behind your back, they laugh at you & call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune & squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence. I have the record & the resources to defeat you. And I will.”
The attention from Bloomberg achieved its ultimate goal: getting under the President’s skin.
Like what Mike Bloomberg said, his exit from the race doesn’t mean he won’t continue to shape it.
According to NBC News, in January, it is reported that Bloomberg’s massive campaign apparatus and an army of some 500 staffers would march on through the general election, even if he lost the Democratic nomination, to shift their efforts toward working to elect whomever the party selects to face Trump