LAS VEGAS — Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is working hard to spin his rocky debate debut.
Their moves: overemphasize his supposed high points, claim that his “career politician” presidential rivals were better positioned to land harsh blows against the former New York City mayor’s record, and redirect attention to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Trump.
“Mike is not a career politician,” top Bloomberg aide Howard Wolfson told reporters in the spin room following Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas. “These other folks have been in public life a long time. They’ve been debating a long time. But I think Mike made it very clear tonight who is best able to take on Donald Trump.”
A statement from Bloomberg’s campaign manager Kevin Sheekey also suggested that Bloomberg’s practiced debate rivals had an advantage, bragging that it took Bloomberg “just 45 minutes in his first debate in 10 years to get his legs on the stage.”
In a tweet Wednesday night, the former three-term New York mayor dismissed his rivals as a “group of politicians” and asserted that he has “created actual change.”
Tonight, I stood on a stage with a group of politicians.
They talked, because that’s what they’re good at.
They went on and on about what they could and should do.
I have built. I have created actual change. I have gotten it done.
That’s what I’ll do for America. #DemDebate
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 20, 2020
Bloomberg’s roughest moment of the night came when Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressured him to release women who accused him of sexual harassment from nondisclosure agreements.
“None of them accused me of doing anything, other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said, prompting groans from the audience.
Wolfson argued that Bloomberg’s flippant response was well-received by viewers.
“What Democrats want is somebody who takes responsibility, someone who is honest, and says that there are things that he has said in his life that he regrets. Nobody is perfect,” Wolfson said. “That’s the kind of president he’d be.”
At a campaign rally on Thursday, Bloomberg redirected attention to the biggest villain to Democrats in 2020.
“So how was your night last night?” Bloomberg joked. “Look, the real winner in the debate last night was Donald Trump.”
“If we choose a candidate who appeals to a small base like Sen. Sanders, it will be a fatal error,” he added.
Throughout the two-hour affair, Bloomberg landed few effective attacks on the rest of the stage. In one instance, he asked if any of the other candidates on stage had started a business, earning silence from the rest of the pack.
But Bloomberg’s team edited a video of the moment and turned the two-second moment into a 22-second video with crickets in the background, drawing wide criticism.
“Congrats to the Bloomberg campaign for figuring out the only way they could salvage last night’s absolute disaster was by deceptively editing video,” said Joe Biden’s spokesman, Bill Russo.
Anyone? pic.twitter.com/xqhq5qFYVk
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 20, 2020
