NOV 08, 2019 NEWS
Jake Johnson / Common
Dreams
Sen. Bernie Sanders said
Thursday night that America’s billionaire class is “scared,” and rightly so,
after numerous outlets reported that former New York City mayor and billionaire
businessman Michael Bloomberg is actively planning to make a late entry into
the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
“The billionaire class is
scared and they should be scared,” tweeted Sanders,
a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, apparently in response to news that
Bloomberg is expected to file paperwork for his possible 2020 Democratic candidacy
in Alabama before the state’s Friday deadline.
According
to the New York Times, Bloomberg, a former Republican, “has not
yet made a final decision on whether to run.”
“But in the first sign that he
is seriously moving toward a campaign, Mr. Bloomberg has dispatched staffers to
Alabama to gather signatures to qualify for the primary there,” the Times reported.
“Mr. Bloomberg and his advisers called a number of prominent Democrats on
Thursday to tell them he was seriously considering the race, including former
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.”
The Sanders campaign quickly
seized upon Bloomberg’s possible White House bid as evidence that rich
Democrats are worried about the prospect of Sanders—who has said he
doesn’t think billionaires should exist—becoming the Democratic presidential
nominee.
“Three simple points,” Sanders
speechwriter David Sirota wrote Thursday
night in the campaign’s Bern Notice newsletter. “1. The billionaire class sees
the Bernie Surge and is terrified that Bernie is going to win. 2. More
billionaires seeking more political power isn’t the change America needs. 3.
Bernie is going to win.”
6 weeks ago, @BernieSanders proposed the most
far-reaching wealth tax & declared "I don't think billionaires should
exist" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/bernie-sanders-wealth-tax.html …
Then Bernie began surging in polls https://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-the-bernie-surge-and …
And now billionaire @MikeBloomberg is panickinghttps://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-bloombergs-move-proves …
Then Bernie began surging in polls https://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-the-bernie-surge-and …
And now billionaire @MikeBloomberg is panickinghttps://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-bloombergs-move-proves …
BERN NOTICE: Bloomberg's Move Proves the
Billionaire Class Sees The Bernie Surge -- And Is Terrified
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), the other top progressive contender for the 2020 Democratic
nomination, responded to reports of Bloomberg’s potential candidacy by tweeting
out her campaign’s “Calculator for Billionaires,” which shows the rich how much
they would pay under Warren’s proposed
wealth tax.
Welcome to the race, @MikeBloomberg! If you're looking
for policy plans that will make a huge difference for working people and which
are very popular, start here: http://ewar.ren/billionaire-calculator …
As the Times noted,
Bloomberg’s “presence in the race would offer fodder to the party’s rising
populist wing, led by Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders, who contend that the
extremely rich already wield far too much influence in politics.”
Some observers suggested
Bloomberg is worried about former Vice President Joe Biden’s candidacy and
could be entering the fray in a last-ditch attempt to stop the Democratic Party
from nominating a progressive.
Progressive activist Jonathan
Cohn tweeted Thursday
night that “Bloomberg’s decision to enter tells us what we already know: Both
Sanders and Warren have real paths to victory, and big donors are afraid that
Biden increasingly doesn’t.”
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