“I don’t think we have to choose between bold ideas and pragmatic leadership,” he said after emphasizing the importance of working across the aisle.
Bloomberg, a billionaire media executive and former Republican mayor of New York, has said he would run as a Democrat if he pursues the White House in 2020. But in the face of concerns that he is too far to the right on a number of issues, including big business and stop-and-frisk policing tactics, he has shown few signs of seeking to assuage those critics.
In a keynote speech at a sold-out breakfast hosted by the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia, Bloomberg underscored the importance of working with Republicans and seemed to brush off attacks that his brand of politics would be unable to unite the party. He also delivered a sharp attack on President Donald Trump as a failed businessman.
His remarks concluded a week in which the former mayor carved an independent path on a series of issues. Days ago, he blasted a push to legalize recreational marijuana, calling the move “perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done.” On Monday, in an appearance in Washington for Martin Luther King’s Birthday, he did not mention his stance on policing tactics even as another speaker at the event, former Vice President Joe Biden, expressed regret for past support of tough 1990s crime legislation.
Bloomberg continued that streak Friday, doubling down on a defense of big business.
“I know it’s very popular among lots of people to say, ‘Oh I don’t like capitalism, I don’t like business,’ ” he said. “But we all need jobs; we all need an economic base.”
Bloomberg again declined to answer whether he would run for president in 2020, telling the audience in a brief question-and-answer session that he was still weighing whether he could best help people from the private sector or the White House.
But he also leaned into a pointed rebuke of the president, questioning Trump’s self-proclaimed expertise as a businessman and dealmaker. He noted that the president inherited the family business and struck deals that “left his customers and contractors holding the bag.”
“To Donald, the art of the deal is simply cheating people and not caring how badly they get hurt, and now he’s doing it to the American people,” Bloomberg said.
The attack allowed the former mayor to underscore his own mayoral experience — an asset, he noted, that other prospective candidates would be well-served to possess.
“We’ve got to make sure we offer real alternatives for 2020, candidates that can do the work, have training, have experience in delivering services, people that know how to manage,” he said, adding that a candidate should not be chosen for his or her rhetorical capabilities. “These jobs, whether it’s president or governor or mayor, they’re executive jobs.
“If the person doing the job doesn’t do the job well, you try to help him or her, and if you can’t help them, you move them out, you fire them,” he continued. “And that’s what we’ve got to do.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.