Trump spars with Bloomberg over $100M Biden boost in Florida battleground
Rivals take shots on Twitter as first TV ads from Bloomberg’s donation hit airwaves
President Trump took to Twitter on Friday to slam former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s pledge to spend $100 million on helping Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win the battleground state of Florida in November’s general election.
Using a derogatory nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Trump charged that “Mini Mike Bloomberg, after making a total fool of himself as he got badly beaten up by Pocahontas and the Democrats in the Primaries, is at it again. He tried to buy an Election and went away with a major case of Depression. Now he’s throwing money at the Dems, looking for a job!”
Warren is a Massachusetts Democrat who, like Bloomberg, launched an unsuccessful bid for the party's 2020 presidential nomination. Trump nicknamed her Pocahontas in a jibe at her claims of Native American ancestry.
BLOOMBERG TO BACK BIDEN BY SPENDING $100M IN FLORIDA
Both Democratic candidates ended their bids in early March after lackluster finishes in the coast-to-coast primaries on Super Tuesday. Bloomberg, a multibillionaire business and media mogul, had begun his campaign in November, well after other candidates.
BLOOMBERG'S BIG BUCKS PAY QUICK DIVIDENDS FOR BIDEN IN FLORIDA
Not only did he shell out $1 billion of his own money to support his efforts, but he has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years backing Democratic candidates as well as initiatives to combat climate change and stem gun violence.
On Friday, he fired back at the president in a tweet, echoing his behavior during the campaign.
“The only one who will be looking for a new job next year is you,” Bloomberg stressed.
The social media squabble came the same day the top super-PAC backing Biden started running new ads in Florida.
Priorities USA said Thursday it's buying a week’s worth of ad time on broadcast television in the state, thanks to a $5.4 million donation from Bloomberg.
The super PAC said its spots would run in all 10 of Florida’s media markets. Bloomberg officials told Fox News that the donation to Priorities USA this week is the first distribution of the $100 million disbursement.
With 29 electoral votes up for grabs, Florida is the largest of the traditional general election battlegrounds.
Biden has a slight 1.6-point edge there, according to an average of the latest public opinion surveys compiled by Real Clear Politics. That’s down from a 5-point advantage the former vice president held over the GOP incumbent a month ago.
Four years ago, Trump narrowly edged out 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Florida, a boost that propelled him to victory in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote nationwide.
Even before the infusion of Bloomberg money to outside groups backing the former vice president, Biden's campaign had been dramatically outspending the Trump team on ads in Florida and other key battlegrounds.