Former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg came to Chicago Wednesday to pitch a hefty jobs plan and a vow to take President Donald Trump on with his own economic fixes.
In a 25-minute speech before supporters at Olive-Harvey College on the Far South Side, the late entrant to an already packed Democratic primary race outlined what he called “candidate Trump’s empty promises,” while also criticizing the president’s handling of Iran.
Iran launched missile strikes late Tuesday against two Iraqi military bases in retaliation for the airstrike that killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani last week.
“In any crisis it’s imperative that the commander-in-chief think through all the implications of his actions or her actions with the help of her or his top advisors to not act irrationally or recklessly, and I certainly hope the president does that. But unfortunately, as we all know, that’s just not his nature,” Bloomberg said of Trump.
Bloomberg painted himself as the best candidate to create jobs, with a “concrete strategy for spreading good jobs and good pay to place where they don’t exist now” — citing his work as mayor of New York City as a prime example.
“I think we need to replace Donald Trump. He’s counting on the economy to lift him to victory and he’s hoping to face a career politician who’s never created any jobs,” Bloomberg said. “Well, let me tell you, I’m going to take him on over the economy and I won’t let him get away with selling the American people more empty promises.”
Bloomberg said he wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and expand the earned income tax credit. He also said he’d work to guaranteed paid sick leave and family leave – which he said he guarantees for all workers at his company. He also vowed to improve and expand roads and bridges, water systems and other infrastructure.
Among those “empty promises,” Bloomberg said Trump promised to deliver to the middle-class — yet passed the country’s biggest tax cut that helped to benefit “people who did not need it, like me.” The president also vowed to keep the General Motors factory from shutting down on Ohio, yet it closed, he said.
“Again and again, candidate Trump made economic promises to working people that he had no intention of keeping and no ability to do that,” Bloomberg said. “And I’m sure he has broken all of them. All across America, there are people in places that are getting shortchanged by an economy that is failing to spread opportunity and by a president who doesn’t keep his word.”
Bloomberg said the country must build an “all-in-economy” — where all Americans benefit from good jobs and rising incomes.
“I know we can do that. Why? Because we did it in New York City in the 12 years I was mayor. And I want to help all communities all across the country enjoy it as well. I know how to create jobs and build businesses, not because I played a business leader on a TV show but because I’ve actually been one in real life.”
Bloomberg, the 11th-person richest person in the world, according to Forbes, said his first paycheck was $9,000 a year, a job he held for 15 years before getting fired. He joked that his family didn’t know anyone in the newspaper unless they were in the crime or obituary sections.
Bloomberg said his parents taught him “hard work and honesty.”
But he warned that a guarantee of a job has changed, and technology has eliminated millions of jobs: “We have to tackle this challenge head on and not by promising to bring back jobs that are gone forever as President Trump does.”
Bloomberg too vowed to prioritize job training and to lead an expansion of apprenticeship programs.
Bloomberg is also traveling to Wells, Minnesota and Akron, Ohio Wednesday. The three stops are meant to highlight “people and places that have been shortchanged by Donald Trump,” according to his campaign.
With his late entry into the race — Nov . 24 — Bloomberg is focusing on states with primary and caucus votes in March. His three Wednesday visits are in states with March primaries.
Bloomberg has vowed to spend at least $150 million — including more than $100 million for internet ads targeting Trump. He also plans to spend more than $30 million on television ads — one of which aired Sunday during the Golden Globe awards. That ad focused on health insurance and is running in 26 states.
Bloomberg met with Mayor Lori Lightfoot for about 45 minutes at a Chicago hotel prior to the Far South Side event, according to his campaign manager Kevin Sheekey. Bloomberg will be asking Lightfoot for her endorsement, he said.
Sheekey told reporters Bloomberg started assembling a team about nine months ago to look at how to target voters and to build a voter database — but warned Trump and the Republican Party are still ahead. The goal is to catch up to him, Sheekey said.
Sheekey also criticized the Democratic party for its primary system for “forcing” candidates to invest money and other resources in states that Trump will win, calling it an enormous disadvantage for a general election that will ultimately be fought in six states.
Sheekey said Trump is targeting those states — and Bloomberg is opening offices in those battleground states “to begin the general election today.”
Bloomberg began his speech with a moment of silence for Henry Mayfield Jr., a 23-year-old United States Army Specialist from Hazel Crest who was killed on Sunday when militants attacked a naval base.
