Warren says she was trying to end Bloomberg’s campaign with debate attacks

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) confirmed that she was trying to end former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign through her attacks on him in several Democratic primary debates and warned that Bloomberg’s candidacy was neither good for democracy nor the Democratic Party.

Asked by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in an interview Thursday whether she was trying to end Bloomberg’s campaign through several heated exchanges during Democratic debates, Warren confirmed that she was and added that “the point is, he’s not going to be the Democratic nominee, and he shouldn’t be the Democratic nominee.”

“In my view, he was absolutely the riskiest candidate for Democrats on that stage, and let me tell you part of the reason why. All of those things in his history mean that he could never launch any of those attacks against Donald Trump,” Warren said.

“Think about the things we are going to need to talk about: hiding your taxes, history with women, embracing racist policies, when you’re in charge, helping bazillionaires and leaving everybody else behind. Shoot, he wouldn’t even be able to launch the autocrat argument against him because Michael Bloomberg’s the guy who, when he was mayor, literally got the change in the laws so he could hang onto power longer,” she continued.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes credit for Mike Bloomberg ending his presidential campaign after their fiery exchange during his first debate.

“In my view he was absolutely the riskiest candidate for Democrats on that stage.” pic.twitter.com/sD8AG7iL6a

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 5, 2020

Last month, Warren and Bloomberg got into a heated exchange during a primary debate over Bloomberg’s alleged past treatment of female employees. Warren explained her experience of being fired as a result of being pregnant when she was a special education teacher and blasted an alleged sexist remark Bloomberg made to a female employee in the 1990s.

Warren also blasted Bloomberg over his controversial stop-and-frisk policy at another February debate. She also said Bloomberg “has a history of hiding his tax returns” and predicted that “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

“So, from my perspective, the idea that a billionaire would just spend enough money to buy his way onto the stage and then not be able to be an effective candidate against Donald Trump. That was not good for democracy, the billionaire buying his way on, and not good for Democrats, a guy who I think would have had the worst chance against Donald Trump,” Warren told Maddow Thursday.

Warren also responded to Bloomberg telling a reporter earlier this week that he “didn’t realize” that the Massachusetts senator was still in the primary race, before Bloomberg dropped out Wednesday, with Warren dropping out Thursday.

“Oh yeah, was he still in that race,” Warren joked.