By ,
Published January 13, 2015
It was anybody's guess what Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were talking about when they met for a breakfast date in Manhattan Friday morning — but Obama picked up the tab.
Judith Perez, a waitress at the New York Luncheonette on East 50th Street, said Obama picked up the $17.34 check and left a $10 tip for the early riser nosh of coffee and eggs.
Reporters were kept outside during the meeting, and peered in the diner window as the two discussed who knows what.
Then the two politicians left in separate cars without addressing the media throng.
Sources tell FOX News big-time politics was not on the table, but that they talked about issues like global warming, the economy and homeland security.
But it only stirred the gossip pot. While Bloomberg has danced around the thought of joining the presidential race — he's dropped his Republican Party affiliation — talk persists that he still could jump in as an independent or third-party candidate.
And Bloomberg appears to be doing exactly what he said he'd do: keeping a promise to stay active in the national debate about the major issues facing voters in 2008.
"I am going to speak out on those issues," Bloomberg said in June. "By not being affiliated with a party I think I'm going to have a better opportunity to do that."
Obama was in town Thursday night for a fundraiser at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Bloomberg earlier this week met with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, leading to speculation that his meeting this morning with Obama might just be his way of showing he has no favorites in the current field of presidential hopefuls.
Bloomberg always speaks well of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, though she did not endorse him when he ran twice for mayor as a Republican.
Bloomberg and Obama met last January when the mayor testified about security grants before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security.
FOX News' Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/barack-obama-picks-up-the-check-at-breakfast-meeting-with-bloomberg