In an interview that aired Sunday on CNN ‘s Fareed Zakaria GPS , Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he will wait until after this fall’s midterms to decide whether or not to run for president in 2020.
“Right now I’m only focused on the midterms….afterwards, you take a look at it,” Bloomberg said.
A former Republican himself, Michael Bloomberg is dissatisfied with how the Republican Party is handling President Trump. In particular, Bloomberg believes that the Republicans have not done enough to provide a counterbalance to the executive branch of the United States government.
“I believe that the Republicans have not done what they should have done in terms of providing some counterbalance to the executive branch,” he said.
On September 17, the New York Times reported that Bloomberg will spend $80 million to flip control of the House of Representatives. The 76-year-old billionaire and media executive’s political group is set to begin spending heavily in Republican-held districts, and Bloomberg himself has gotten involved.
Bloomberg, who was elected mayor as a Republican and an independent, is publicly denouncing what the Republican Party has become, holding speeches and beginning to test his options for 2020.
In an interview with the NYT , Bloomberg argued that, while he does not agree with the Democratic Party on everything, he is “way away from where the Republican Party is today,” indicating that if he would run for president in 2020, he would run as a Democrat.
The billionaire remains uncertain about running. Momentarily focused on the midterms, Bloomberg told CNN the following.
“We’d see whether or not it’s possible and how I feel, but that’s down the road. You’ve got to take these things one at a time. Everybody’s focused now on the midterms — at least they think they are, and they should be. And then afterward, we’ll — there’s lots of possibilities.”
I asked @MikeBloomberg if he thinks he could win in 2020: https://t.co/Qtq0w7Klly Watch the full interview on GPS tomorrow at 10a/1p ET on CNN
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) September 22, 2018
While hesitant and undecided about a potential presidential run in 2020, Bloomberg is, he told CNN, unhappy with most of President Trump’s policies, and with the way he has tried to initiate and implement them.
A centrist Democrat, the media mogul has clear differences with progressive Democrats, and with so-called establishment Democrats, according to the Business Insider , which could turn out to be problematic if he was to run in 2020.
Bloomberg has, for instance, broken with Democrats on issues like Wall Street regulation, and the #MeToo movement. Likewise, the billionaire has expressed disagreement with the Republican Party’s stances on gun control and climate change.
If Bloomberg decides to run as a Democrat in 2020, he will likely have to run against experienced politicians like Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.