Michael Bloomberg will endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid during a primetime address at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week, a top aide to the former New York City mayor said Sunday.
Bloomberg — who was a Democrat prior to his initial mayoral run in 2001 when he became a Republican, and then became an independent in 2007 — will explain his support for Clinton “from the perspective of a business leader and an independent,” Howard Wolfson, a senior adviser to Bloomberg, said in a statement.
“As the nation’s leading independent and a pragmatic business leader Mike has supported candidates from both sides of the aisle. This week in Philadelphia he will make a strong case that the clear choice in this election is Hillary Clinton,” Wolfson said.
Bloomberg is slated to speak Wednesday night, the same evening that President Obama and Vice President Biden are both scheduled to deliver speeches. Donald Trump must lose badly to abolish hate brewing in U.S.
In endorsing Clinton, Bloomberg adds his name to a growing list of Republican defectors who have refused to support GOP nominee Donald Trump this year.
Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush; Richard Armitage, an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan; and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman; as well as many others, have all said they’ll vote for Clinton over Trump.
Bloomberg had seriously mulled his own third-party run in 2016, but eventually decided to sit the race out, explaining that he did not want to risk splitting support among the two major parties and possibly ease the path to the White House for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Bloomberg will endorse Clinton in a primetime speech Wednesday — the same night that President Obama and Vice President Biden will speak. (WILLIAM PHILPOTT/REUTERS)
In a scathing March editorial for the media organization bearing his own name, Bloomberg said he refused to help elect either of the then-front-runners for the GOP. Meet some of Donald Trump’s black supporters
“As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz,” Bloomberg wrote in an Op-Ed for Bloomberg View. “That is not a risk I can take in good conscience.”
“(Trump) has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people’s prejudices and fears. Abraham Lincoln, the father of the Republican Party, appealed to our ‘better angels.’ Trump appeals to our worst impulses.”
Trump’s proposals to build a border wall and ban all Muslims from the U.S. “would divide us at home and compromise our moral leadership around the world,” Bloomberg wrote “The end result would be to embolden our enemies, threaten the security of our allies, and put our own men and women in uniform at greater risk.”
By contrast, Bloomberg’s predecessor as mayor, Rudy Giuliani, at the Republican National Convention last week, delivered a bombastic endorsement of Trump, praising police across the U.S. and promising, “What I did for New York, Donald Trump will do for America. Tags: mike bloomberg hillary clinton barack obama 2016 election joe biden ronald reagan ted cruz democratic national convention Send a Letter to the Editor Join the Conversation: facebook Tweet