U.S. Candidate Bloomberg Says Trump Cannot Stop Taking Bait in Insult War
U.S. Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg vowed on Monday he would not let President Donald Trump bully him and said the insults being lobbed at him are a sign Trump is worried about running against the…
U.S. Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg vowed on Monday he would not let President Donald Trump bully him and said the insults being lobbed at him are a sign Trump is worried about running against the fellow New York business tycoon.
“I think he thinks I’m going to beat him,” Bloomberg told Reuters in an interview in Compton, California, where he was campaigning. “And we’ve tried to get under his skin.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday showed Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, moving into third place among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
He trails front-runners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, who competed on Monday in Iowa’s caucuses, the traditional kickoff to the presidential nominating contest. Bloomberg is taking an unorthodox approach focused instead on larger, delegate-rich states such as California that start voting in March.
The party’s nominee will face Trump in the November election.
Trump told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity in an interview that aired on Sunday that Bloomberg, who stands about 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, against the president’s 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m), had requested a box to stand on during the Democratic debates.
The jab came after the Democratic National Committee scrapped a rule last week requiring that candidates meet a threshold of grassroots donations, opening the door for Bloomberg to participate in a Feb. 19 debate in Nevada.
Trump also has dismissed Bloomberg in a series of recent Twitter posts as “mini Mike.”
On Sunday, Bloomberg’s campaign denied it had requested a box and taunted the president’s “fake hair, his obesity and his spray-on tan.”