With the latest polling showing former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has qualified for Wednesdayâs Democrat debate in Las Vegas, the War Room is asking whether taking the stage is a good move for the billionaire Presidential hopeful.
Jason Miller, War Room 2020 cohost and communications director for the 2016 Trump campaign, suggested Bloombergâs debate performance would be weak:
âWhen you look at his previous debates from 2009, when you look even at his events on the stump as heâs traveling around the country: heâs weak on the stump. Heâs very weak. He talks about voters in classes of people, and I think this is a big weakness.â
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âI think this is absolute malpractice that Bloombergâs team is letting him take the debate stage tomorrow night. I think this is the one thing that can trip him up, and theyâre sending him head first into it.â
Stephen K. Bannon, host of War Room 2020, noted that Bloomberg has made two large mistakes:
âHe went after the Bernie Bros on the far left,â Bannon said in reference to a recent ad the Bloomberg campaign launched. âThis is malpractice,â he affirmed his cohostâs stance. âWhy would you put him on the stage? Itâs better to let people project onto him what is is than see the reality.â
.@JasonMillerinDC: Absolute malpractice that Team @Mike2020 is letting #Bloomberg take the #DemocraticDebate stage tomorrow night
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— The War Room (@WarRoom2020) February 18, 2020
Raheem Kassam, War Room cohost and editor-in-chief of the National Pulse, offered an explanation for Bloombergâs campaign:
âMaybe they want to get this kind of pile on aspect of a debate out of the way as early as possible, and thatâs why they would go into this debate.â
âIâm in broad agreement with you, Jason [Miller],â Kassam continued. âI donât think if you were on his team you would want him to debate. But maybe you want to get the ruffle out of the way while heâs not on the ballot,â given Bloomberg will not officially be on ballots until Super Tuesday.
âYou have a whole bunch of desperate candidates right now,â Miller said. âSo you have the Klobucharâs, the Mayor Peteâs, Joe Bidenâs. Joe Biden could basically play the Chris Christie role to Marco Rubio from last go around, where he knows heâs not going to win the thing but letâs just dial up a daisy cutter and just drive it right into [Bloombergâs] heart. Thatâs what Biden could do.â
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Bloomberg would not have been eligible for this debate had it not been for a recent rule change, which did away with certain donor requirements.
âThe Democrats have certain criteria to be able to get into the debate,â Miller explained. âYou [have] to have a number of polls coming out where you had to hit ten per cent in the threshold. Previously you used to have a certain number of donors, or a certain standing or finish in some of the earlier primary states.â
âObviously Bloomberg wasnât doing that,â he continued. âThey changed the rules to where they got rid of the donor requirement. Initially this was said: âwhy are they making it so easy for Bloomberg to get there?â But then a lot more folks lately have said actually no, a lot of the opponents wanted that to happen because they didnât want a scenario where Bloomberg would just skip all of the debates. They wanted to force him into it.â