Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a black opponent for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, as “well spoken,” a comment that, like Joe Biden’s 2007 faint praise of rival Barack Obama as “articulate and bright,” drew criticism.
Bloomberg, 77, addressed the presidential prospects of Booker, 50, in a CBS interview aired Friday morning. Before winning his Senate seat in a 2013 special election, Booker was mayor of Newark, just west of New York City.
“Cory Booker endorsed me a number of times, and I endorsed Cory Booker a number of times. He’s very well spoken, he’s got some good ideas,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire who has vowed to spend heavily from personal funds on his 2020 race, had been asked to address the candidate composition of the Dec. 19 debate in Los Angeles. At this point, only white candidates have met the criteria to participate, as set by the Democratic National Committee.
“It would be better the more diverse any group is, but the public is out there picking and choosing and narrowing down this field,” Bloomberg said. “The truth of the matter is that you had a lot of diversity in the candidates, some of whom were very competent. Why they aren’t there as you narrowed it down, you have to talk to other people who are experts, I don’t know.”
Bloomberg’s “well spoken” remark about Booker recalled comments by Biden in early 2007, when then-Illinois Senator Obama entered the Democratic primary fray. Biden, then a Delaware senator, was already in the race.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said in an interview. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Biden quickly apologized. But his presidential prospects didn’t work out. He left the race the next January after earning less than 1% in the Iowa Caucuses.
Still, the incident had little lasting damage in the Obama-Biden relationship. A year-and-a-half later, Obama, on the cusp of accepting the 2008 Democratic nomination after winning a bruising primary fight against Hillary Clinton, chose Biden as his running mate, and the ticket won the White House that fall.
That wasn’t the last time Obama, the nation’s first black president, was the source of racially-tinged remarks from a political ally. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized in 2010 for remarking on how Obama, as a black candidate, could be successful thanks, in part, to his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
“I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” Reid said after the comments were first reported.
On Friday, Bloomberg’s calling Booker “well spoken” triggered criticism.
Oh dear. Cory Booker is “well-spoken”? Bloomberg is old enough (aka older than maybe 15) to know what a trope this is https://t.co/diTgMGw1bF
— Jessica Shortall ? (@jessicashortall) December 6, 2019
Cory Booker is “well spoken” (!) Bloomberg says. Ask yourself how many times you hear a POC say the same of a white person https://t.co/8St6Hp4o6n
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) December 6, 2019
Bloomberg calls Cory Booker, “Well spoken” and Gayle King kept that poker face. https://t.co/VprxUd9GzG
— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) December 6, 2019
