Bloomberg Has Barbs at the Ready for His First 2020 Debate

When 💼Michael Bloomberg steps onto the Democratic debate stage for the first time on Wednesday, he will be ready to dismiss rivals like Joe Biden, who as vice president made “speeches that somebody writes for him,” and Pete Buttigieg, “mayor of a town.”

Bloomberg told Reuters in an interview earlier this month he would contrast their experience to his success as billionaire chief executive of global financial information and media company Bloomberg LP and three-time mayor of New York City.

“None of them would know how to run a big organization,” he said of the seven other Democratic candidates seeking the nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in November.

Some of his rivals have made clear they see the televised debate as their best opportunity to subject Bloomberg, who has been rising fast in the polls, to greater public scrutiny.

He will face tough questions over his past support for policies that have been widely criticized as racially discriminatory.

He will also have to defend himself against the charge he is trying to buy the election with his self-financed campaign. Public filings show he spent $188 million of his own money through December.

“Bloomberg is spending an awful lot of money, but he has also not had his turn in the barrel,” Representative Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of Biden’s campaign, told reporters on a call on Feb. 12.

Bloomberg qualified for Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Asked by Reuters how he would differentiate himself from his rivals in a debate, Bloomberg said he would emphasize his experience as the former mayor of America’s biggest city and as the head of a large multinational company.

As vice president under Barack Obama, Biden “reads speeches that somebody writes for him,” he said during a campaign stop in Compton, California, on Feb 3. “That’s the job. His job was not to manage but to do some things the president needed done and for all I know he did a competent job.”