2020 Democrats hammer Mike Bloomberg with oppo research
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," February 17, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The agrarian society lasted 3,000 years, and we can teach processes. I can teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The information economy is fundamentally different because it's built around replacing people with technology, and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze. And that is a whole degree level different.
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BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Well, people are thinking and analyzing about Mike Bloomberg's past comments, what he said about different things, big pieces about allegations of a hostile work environment, all kinds of things coming up about Mike Bloomberg. The long knives are out, as Brit Hume said. As you take a look at the RCP average of recent polls, nationally in Nevada and South Carolina, the two next contests, you can see Bloomberg climbing up nationally, but not really even in the picture Nevada and South Carolina. He's not in the game there. For ad spending, he is in the game. Almost $320 million spent so far by Michael Bloomberg. Tom Steyer, $137 million. Next, $18.6 million by Bernie Sanders. And you see the rest on campaign spending.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Let's bring in our panel, Chris Stirewalt is politics editor here at FOX News, A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics, and Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist." Chris, we knew that Mike Bloomberg was going to have his time in the barrel. It seems like the barrel is turning.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR: The barrel is turning like he's going over Niagara. But maybe if you are Mike Bloomberg, this is a good time to do it. Everybody is talking about him, yes, and a lot of it is negative, but that's going to be pushed out by the Nevada caucuses. That's going to be pushed aside by that discussion for a minute. So maybe it's good to inoculate yourself.
The big question I have is, does somebody out there have a doggone poll that they are going to put out tomorrow that could get Bloomberg on the stage? Because if he's on the stage of this week with this much hot fire coming at him, it would be a real pinata session up there.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: Yes, A.B., it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't be the focus of everybody's ire on that debate stage if he makes it.
A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Oh, yes. All the campaigns are frustrated by the fact that he hasn't really been on the race. He's just been on the air. He will not give interviews to media and take the tough questions, and he will not -- he makes campaign stops, but he hasn't faced a bunch of voters in any of the contests. And he's banking on the fact that four percent only of the delegates will have been assigned by Super Tuesday where he has built up this incredibly expensive operation to compete in many, many of the states, and to bank on the fact that he is targeting the desperate voters in the Democratic Party who wants to get rid of President Trump, but doesn't care if he wasn't in Iowa or he hasn't been given interviews.
And so the campaigns are incredibly frustrated. The candidates are incredibly frustrated by the attention his adds are getting and the talk about how increasingly, including black voters, they see him as sort of the man to take on President Trump. And so I imagine he will be discussed whether he shows up at the debate this week or not.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: Speaking of that, he is running ads dealing with the African- American issue. Obviously, people raised eyebrows with his comments about stop and frisk and that policy. Take a listen to his ads.
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BLOOMBERG: I know my story would have turned out very differently if I had been black. So today I'm proposing a sweeping strategy to invest in black wealth creation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Bloomberg created the Young Men's Initiative in helping keeps other young men and young women from entering into the criminal justice system. And we see it. We see it in young people being employed. We see young people being removed out of the system. And that's what justice looks like to me, and I think that's what Mike Bloomberg has done for my community and throughout the city of New York.
JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Michael Bloomberg with $62 billion can buy every ad he wants, but he can't, in fact, wipe away his record.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: Mollie, where do you think this falls down?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: He knows that he has a problem with African-American voters because of the policies that he enacted when he was mayor of New York City. What's interesting about this ad is how different it is from his own statements. He was at one time quite proud of the stop and frisk, which was this civil liberties destroying initiative, and he even defended it on racial grounds. And that is so different from what he is going to say now.
This is an area where he actually would not be a good opponent to President Trump in that President Trump has made criminal justice reform a big part of his administration, and then the economic gains made by African- Americans is something that President Trump is very proud of and touts. It's difficult to see how Bloomberg would fare against Trump on these particular issues.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: On swings against Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders really taking the biggest swings. You saw Joe Biden there. Take another listen to Sanders and Biden going after him.
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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democracy to me means one person, one vote, not Bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy an election.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse.
BIDEN: This is Trump-like, way over the line. And I think Bernie has to be, he has to disavow this.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: Chris?
STIREWALT: Well, look, Bernie Sanders, whatever happens, he's going to say the system was rigged and it was against him, because that is the on-brand message for Bernie Sanders, because that's what his supporters need to believe. The danger for Democrats is as the possibility of a contested convention becomes more and more real, right, we are talking about how many delegates are up on Super Tuesday. If Bernie Sanders comes out of Super Tuesday with, let's say, 350 or 400 delegates of those that are available, it becomes very hard to stop him outright for anybody no matter how much money they have. And you create a scenario that you go into Milwaukee without consensus, at which point Sanders and his squad go berserk.
BAIER: And Chris celebrates mightily.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}STIREWALT: Anything to cover while eating bratwurst.
(LAUGHTER)
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