Bloomberg warns graduates on lies in politics
Former New York City mayor issues 'dire warning' to graduates. Panel debates the commencement speech.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would pose the toughest challenge to President Trump’s re-election bid in 2020, a former Trump campaign manager said Wednesday.
Corey Lewandowski said he believes that Bloomberg, a billionaire media mogul, would be a serious threat to win the White House if he ran as a Democrat because of his vast fortune, name recognition and reputation as a job creator.
“Mike Bloomberg created tens of thousands of jobs over the course of his lifetime,” Lewandowski told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, the New York Post reported. “That is a story the American people like -- and he’s an outsider. I think it would be a very competitive race.”
Lewandowski, now an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence's Great America PAC, said the self-made billionaire was "an American success story” whose ability to self-fund would benefit his campaign. Bloomberg's net worth is $52 billion, according to Forbes.
He said another advantage was Bloomberg's “history of running the nation’s largest city.”
Bloomberg, 76, is founder and CEO of Bloomberg LP, a global media company. The three-term New York City mayor initially ran and served as a Republican before becoming an independent after his second term. He was a Democrat prior to running for office.
“Mike Bloomberg created tens of thousands of jobs over the course of his lifetime. That is a story the American people like -- and he’s an outsider."
Lewandowski also said Bloomberg held enough clout on progressive issues to win presidential primaries and make a close general election, according to the Hill.
Bloomberg, an outspoken critic of Trump, has said he plans to spend at least $80 million on this year's midterm elections to help the Democratic Party gain a majority in the U.S. House.
He twice flirted with running for president as an independent candidate, but ruled it out in 2016, believing he wouldn’t win on a third-party ticket, the New York Post reported.
Other rumored contenders for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination include U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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