Seemingly finished with reporting Tuesday on the alleged racism and sexism controversies of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News took to touting his rise in the polls and subsequent qualification for the Democratic debate in Nevada. It had CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell marveling at how Bloomberg's “surge” in the polls puts him in “second place” nationally and “puts him over the top” to get on the stage.
“He's not competing in Nevada, but Bloomberg will be on the debate state here against five rivals who’ve been debating for months,” CBS correspondent Nikole Killion noted at the top of her report. She later added: “Bloomberg has spent $415 million of his own money on ads, and it's paying off. In the super Tuesday state of Virginia, has now tied for the lead with Bernie Sanders.”
Killion also highlighted an extremely vague warning from of damaging dirt the Bloomberg campaign supposedly had on Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT):
On Twitter, Bloomberg's campaign manager warned today, “the opposition research against the democratic socialist is damaging, perhaps even disqualifying.” [BACK LIVE] Tonight the Bloomberg campaign isn't saying what information it has that could be disqualifying and the Sanders campaign isn't commenting, although aides have privately expressed concern that Bloomberg could be their most formidable opponent.
There was no mention of Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy, accusations of sexism at his company, nor his condescending dismissal of the plight of American farmers.
Over on ABC, anchor David Muir and correspondent Eva Pilgrim ignored those controversies as well. But Muir seemed eager to talk about “the race for 2020 tonight, and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, rising in the polls. He will be on the debate stage for the first time this week.”
After Muir hyped Bloomberg’s “promise” to distance himself from his company if he was elected, Pilgrim replied:
We are just learning Bloomberg's campaign saying that if he is elected president, he will immediately put his company into a blind trust and then sell it. He knows his wealth will be an issue on the debate stage tomorrow night and they are trying to get ahead of it.
But shortly after President Trump was elected, ABC decried Trump’s plan to turn his business over to his adult children in a bid to combat a perception of a conflict of interest. ABC later admitted, “There is no law that specifically requires the president to give up his business or put it in a blind trust.” ABC (and CBS) still have yet to report on air how Bloomberg had directed his news company not to investigate him and other Democratic candidates.
While ABC and CBS were talking about how other Democratic candidates were blasting Bloomberg’s multi-million-dollar ad campaign, NBC Nightly News (via White House correspondent Kristen Welker) reported on how they were also attacking his “controversial past NYPD police tactic of stop and frisk for which he recently apologized.”
Welker shared soundbites of Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg hitting Bloomberg for his “racist” policy. She also shared the results of a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that had Trump at 47 percent, a record high for that particular poll.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
Poster Comment:
They hope to stop Bernie from a first ballot victory and then give the nomination to a Wall Street approved puppet.