Tucker: Bloomberg is trying to buy the election
Bloomberg isn't running on any agenda, trying to subvert democracy with cash.
According to new numbers over the weekend, the Democratic primary race is constricting to become really a two-man contest. A lot of people are still in the race, but the outline of the future is getting clearer.
So on one side, you have a candidate, Bernie Sanders, who wants to turn this country into a comprehensive welfare state. He plans to upend every aspect of American life in order to impose a new economic order. Now Sanders isn't hiding what he plans to do; he is running on what he plans to do.
His main rival is Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. Bloomberg has shot to above 15 percent nationally in the polls from nowhere essentially. He is suddenly leading the race in the critical Super Tuesday state of Florida.
So what is Mike Bloomberg running on? That's a trick question, actually. Bloomberg isn't running on anything. Not because he doesn't have ideas – he's got plenty of ideas, and some of them are far outside the American mainstream.
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But Bloomberg doesn't think any of that matters. He's not running on ideas. He's not trying to convince voters of anything. He's not making arguments or working to change their minds on policies they care about.
He is trying to buy them and hence, the presidency. It's the single most cynical political campaign ever run in this country. Bloomberg is trying to subvert our democracy with cash, and he is going all-in to do it.
According to the latest numbers, Bloomberg has spent more than $417 million on advertising so far in this race. His nearest rival, Bernie Sanders, has spent $40 million. That's less than a tenth.
Bloomberg can't be bothered with selling ideas or with a platform. He doesn't care what the public thinks, that's why. He believes he can win by overwhelming voters with his money.
Joe Biden, the man they told us was the front-runner, has spent just $12.3 million. Compare that, let's say it again, to the at least $417 million Bloomberg has pumped into the race just on advertising.
And that's just the beginning. Aides say Bloomberg is willing to spend $2 billion of his own money by Election Day and the number could go higher. Nothing like this has ever happened in America. Bloomberg's spending is like – and pick your metaphor here – a tsunami breaking over our political system. When the waters recede, there's nothing left. It's been flattened and wiped clean by the weight of Mike Bloomberg's wealth.
Bloomberg is the tallest figure on the landscape. The only one left upright. That's his plan. He has all but admitted that's his plan. Watch him disavow stop and frisk, the single most successful policy he had as mayor of New York.
Michael Bloomberg, 2020 presidential candidate: I defended it, looking back, for too long, because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids. I heard their pain, their confusion and their anger, and I've learned from them, and I've grown from them.
So think about what you just saw. It's not the normal pandering.
Mike Bloomberg believes passionately in gun control. It's his life's mission. It's his signature issue.
Stop and frisk may have been the most effective gun control policy ever administered anywhere. It took thousands of illegal firearms off the streets of New York, but Democratic primary voters have decided they don't like it. They're against stop and frisk. So without even pausing, Bloomberg grovels, as you just saw, and attacks his own legacy.
Why did he do that? Because he doesn't care. Whatever. They are only words. He'll do whatever it takes. Now, they say politicians are ethically flexible, and of course, they are. But this is different. There's something ominous about it.
Bloomberg can seamlessly change his core beliefs because he doesn't think his beliefs are relevant to the outcome of this race. Only his wealth matters.
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And the horrifying fact is he may be right.
How wealthy is Michael Bloomberg? Well, for context, the richest of the fabled Russian oligarchs, Leonid Mikhelson, is worth about $24 billion. Michael Bloomberg could literally give away twice that amount or spend it on a presidential race, if he wanted, and still be five times as rich as Donald Trump is.
It's hard to imagine just how much money that is. But with that money, Bloomberg can suffocate all opposition and seize power. Our ruling class, which worships money above all, sees nothing wrong with this. They're eager to help Bloomberg do it. Like Bloomberg, they're religiously libertarian on economic matters.
That's a position that's shared by only a tiny percentage of the population. No normal person in this country thinks the widening wealth gap is a good thing. It's so obviously making America unstable. But Mike Bloomberg has been one of its chief beneficiaries. He will defend the current system above all else. There's a reason he is the favorite of finance moguls and tech connoisseurs.
Again, this is a total departure from anything we have seen before in the history of this country. Say what you will about Donald Trump, but in 2016, he ran for president on ideas that large numbers of voters actually liked, whether or not they liked him.
Secure the border, end counterproductive wars, fight the fascism of political correctness. In selling those ideas, he spent about half what Hillary Clinton spent. But Bloomberg can't be bothered with selling ideas or with a platform. He doesn't care what the public thinks, that's why. He believes he can win by overwhelming voters with his money.
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This is the nightmare scenario that campaign finance reform activists used to tell us about. They were right about one thing: our system has been vulnerable to people like Michael Bloomberg for a long time. He is just the first one who's actually tried to do it. You should be alarmed by his campaign for president.
Democracy doesn't break when voters choose unwisely; they sometimes do. Democracy collapses when what voters want becomes irrelevant.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Feb. 17, 2020
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