Michael Bloomberg closes his infamously large self-funded campaign, showing what money cannot buy, adoration of the American people.

Michael Bloomberg is an American politician and business person known for his company  Bloomberg L.P., and his run as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. According to Forbes, Bloomberg ranks as the 9th richest person with  a net worth of $55.5 billion. He is now under fire at his failed attempt at the 2020 Democratic candidacy. This caused by the various criticisms, controversies and privilege surrounding him.

“Though never considered a charismatic candidate, Mr Bloomberg never lost an election before his humiliation in 2020,” said the BBC.

Bloomberg has a mixed history as a company owner and mayor of New York City. Bloomberg supported the problematic “stop and frisk” policy which allows the police to randomly search and question people they suspect are dangerous. While confirmed constitutional in the 1968 decision of Terry v. Ohio, it has been statistically shown to be ineffective and unequally targets Black and Latinx people. In Bloomberg’s first year as mayor 2002, 82 percent were innocent and in 2013, his last year as mayor, 88 percent innocent. At the policy’s height in 2011, where out of the 685,724 stops recorded, 605,328 were innocent (88 percent) and a combined 87 percent were Black and Latinx to the 9 percent White. Meaning this policy failed both on equality and it’s goal at finding perpetrators. Yet, a recording of Bloomberg answering these criticisms resulted in the “#Bloombergisracist” surfacing on twitter.

On February 5, 2015 Bloomberg stated, “Put those cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods. So, one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”

His company Bloomberg L.P had so many accusations of sexual harassment, extending to announcing new mandatory workplace training. There are accusations of rating women, encouraging heels and skirts, and multiple comments from male employees. These accusations also leached their way into his campaign, such as Bloomberg stating that his workers receive  equal pay. According to The Hill however, men earn an average of $5,500 more. The investigation showed Black and Latinx people earning $10,000 less. The company is also seemingly obsessed with paid non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) among fired workers.

The New York Times  states “some employees at Michael R. Bloomberg’s company are barred from publicly describing misconduct and what they perceived as an entrenched culture of bullying, where women are often objectified and sometimes face discrimination.” 

Bloomberg himself has had many NDAs with women, hurting him along the campaign trail. Former candidate Elizabeth Warren mentioned this in the debates, and pressured him to release the women of the NDAs. He has stated that three women can release themselves from the contracts if they want.

Bloomberg started his campaign on November 21, 2019 and dropped out March 4, 2020 after a tragic outcome on Super Tuesday. The most notable aspect of his campaign was the spending of $676 million. Making it not only the largest self-funded, but largest most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign. Similar to candidates Buttigieg, Klobuchar and O’Rourke, Bloomberg endorsed Joe Biden. This is an odd choice and many are dubbing this phenomenon ‘the centrist blob’ as the former candidates support Joe Biden.

In a recent tweet he states, “Three months ago, I entered the race to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I’m leaving for the same reason. Defeating Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. It’s clear that is my friend and a great American, @JoeBiden.”