Bloomberg under fire for referring to transgender women as 'some guy wearing a dress,' using 'it' pronoun
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Surging 2020 Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg is under fire for remarks he made about transgender people last year.
In March 2019, the former New York City mayor participated in a forum conducted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency, where he discussed how the political "establishment" has been losing worldwide and pointed to the election of President Trump as well as Brexit. He warned Democrats running for president at the time to not focus on issues that aren't being talked about by the majority of Americans.
"If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that's not a winning formula with most people," Bloomberg said. "They care about health care, they care about education, they care about safety and all of those kinds of things. And some of these social issues ... we're focusing on a lot of things that have little relevance to people who are trying to live in a world that is changing because of technology, communications and things like that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He continued, "So you can understand where somebody like Trump comes from. You can understand -- if you look at the Democratic Party, they are so far left that two years ago, there was nobody on their side that would take these positions and today, virtually all of the candidates for president in the Democratic Party have been so progressive -- I don't know what progressive means, but they are in a place where some of the American public is. And it remains to be seen if the majority of the electorate is."
A Bloomberg campaign spokesperson told Fox News, "Mike understands that the transgender community has been under attack for decades and the advance of rights has not been equal. In April 2002, during his first year as mayor, Mike signed a sweeping transgender civil rights bill into law. His company provides comprehensive healthcare coverage for his transgender employees. As president, he has a comprehensive plan to secure rights for transgender Americans, including passing the Equality Act, ensuring transgender people have access to affirming healthcare and working to end the crisis of violence against transgender women. Mike is running to defeat Donald Trump and reverse the many policies he has implemented that attack the rights of the transgender community."
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While he has risen in the polls in recent weeks and secured a spot in the upcoming Democratic debates, the Bloomberg campaign has been on the defense over the billionaire's past remarks defending stop and frisk, comments he allegedly made about women, and a clip critics say disparages farmers.