Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's potential presidential run has been deemed unnecessary by Hillary Clinton, welcomed by Donald Trump and shunned by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. File photo by Richard Drew/Pool/UPI |
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's potential presidential run has been deemed unnecessary by Hillary Clinton, welcomed by Donald Trump and shunned by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Bloomberg commissioned a poll in December to see how he would fare against Trump and Clinton. He reportedly plans to commission more polls after the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 before making a final decision in March on whether to run on a third-party ticket. He has already indicated that he's willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own fortune on a campaign.
Former Secretary of State Clinton, who previously served as a New York senator, said she was confident she will secure the Democratic nomination for the 2016 election -- meaning Bloomberg's potential bid as an independent candidate would be unnecessary.
"He's a good friend of mine," Clinton said during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. "The way I read what he said is if I didn't get the nomination, he might consider it. Well, I'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to."
Trump, who has been leading Republican polls through much of the electoral cycle, told CBS' Face the Nation that he would welcome a Bloomberg White House bid.
"I'd love to compete against Michael. And I know him very well. And I think he might very well get in the race and I would love to have him get in the race," Trump said. "He's very opposite on me with guns and he's opposite on pro-life and he's opposite on a lot of things."
Bloomberg's policies are a mixture of aggressively pro-business, pro-Wall Street policies that conservatives favor, along with socially liberal stances that please liberals. Bloomberg is the co-chair of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group of mayors that advocates for gun control measures.
"Michael's been a friend of mine over the years -- perhaps we're not friends anymore. You know, he's wanted to do this for a long time and he never pulled the trigger," Trump added.
On ABC News' This Week, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is narrowly leading Clinton in Iowa polls and substantially in New Hampshire, said he was confident he would come out victorious in a three-way electoral showdown against Trump and Bloomberg.
"I think it would be very interesting if Donald Trump became the Republican candidate who is a multi-billionaire, and Michael Bloomberg became an independent candidate who is a multi-billionaire," Sanders said. "It will tell people what I have been saying for a long time is that this country is moving away from democracy to oligarchy that billionaires are the people who are controlling our political life ... That is not what, to my view, American democracy is supposed to be about, a contest between billionaires. If that takes place, I am confident that we will win it."
