Bloomberg called Warren 'scary' and vowed to 'defend the banks' in closed-door 2016 event

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said at a private event in 2016 that his presidential campaign platform would have been to "defend the banks" and also labeled the progressive movement and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, now a rival for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, as "scary."

When asked his views on the rise of the far right in Europe, Bloomberg warned about the rise of progressive politicians in the US, citing Warren.

"The left is arising. The progressive movement is just as scary," he says. "Elizabeth Warren on one side. And whoever you want to pick on the Republicans on the right side?"

Bloomberg, who was elected mayor as a Republican and as an independent, also criticized President Barack Obama, saying that his 2012 endorsement of Obama was "backhanded" and that he thought Republican Mitt Romney could have done a better job if he'd been elected.

In the remarks, Bloomberg also spoke of the need for America to solve the problem of income equality before society "blows up." "Well, to start, my first campaign platform would be to defend the banks, and you know how well that's gonna sell in this country," Bloomberg said in his remarks.

"But seriously," he went on, "somebody's gotta stand up and do what we need. A healthy banking system that's going to take risks because that's what creates the jobs for everybody. And nobody's willing to say that. The trouble is, these campaigns in this day and age, really are about slogans and not about issues anymore. And in this election you're going to see people are voting and they either love or hate, mostly hate both, but who you hate the least. That's what they're going to vote for. And they're not going to vote on issues."

Back in 2016, Bloomberg went well off the Democratic reservation on a number of issues. The fact that he's pretty much a standard issue Republican on many aspects of economic policy is coming back to bite him some in this Democratic primary. His hope in the coming debate is that his primary opponents will focus their fire on Sanders rather than him, since Sanders is the front-runner. But every chance they get, they'll ask would-be Bloomberg primary voters this question - "Why is this Republican even here? Isn't this the *Democratic* primary?"

[To use Mayor Booty’s verbiage, Bloomie is toxic and since he was HRC last hope for a brokered convention, Bernie rules.]

There will be a brokered convention unless Sanders wins a majority of the delegates, which he won’t. That’s over 50%. He will win, at best, about 35%. And Bloomberg’s not spending billions of his own cash to make HRC president, any more than he spent hundreds of millions to make someone else NYC mayor.

Bloomberg’s path to the nomination consists of him getting the #2 spot, delegate-wise, after Sanders, buying off all the Dem also-rans, and prevailing on the second ballot. If he doesn’t get the #2 slot, things become a lot harder, because whomever is #2 is going to think of himself not merely as a kingmaker but a potential nominee, and therefore less likely to give up his delegates to Bloomberg.

https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_delegate_rules,_2020
[The 2020 Democratic presidential nominee will be selected by delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which will be held July 13-16, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party officially selects its nominee. The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state, territory, or Democrats Abroad at the convention.

In 2020, there will be 4,750 delegates: 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 automatic delegates—more commonly known as superdelegates.[1]

To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate must receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: 1,991 pledged delegates.[2][3] If the convention is contested and goes to a second ballot or more, automatic delegates will be able to vote and a candidate must receive majority support from all delegates: more than 2,375 votes.[4] Roughly two-thirds of the delegates will have been allocated by the end of March 2020. ]

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