One almost New York mayor thinks a former New York mayor could be the next president.
Anthony Weiner, the former congressman and one-time New York City mayoral frontrunner, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that the prospect of Michael Bloomberg running for president is not so far-fetched.
“I suppose he could win,” Weiner said, considering a potential three-man race between Bloomberg, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. A report from The New York Times on Saturday laid out the conditions for a Bloomberg run which would be predicated on a victory from Trump or Ted Cruz on the Republican side and a win from Sanders for the Democrats. Bloomberg is allegedly biding his time to see how the early states vote, allowing him to inject a lot of his own enormous wealth into a potential bid by March.
Weiner, whose wife, Huma Abedin, is a longtime aide for Hillary Clinton, suggested that a lot of people may be girding themselves for the possibility of a Trump vs. Sanders general election.
“Preparations for the Trump-Bernie scenario are probably afoot in lots of places,” Weiner said describing in his mind the only possible situation in which Bloomberg would enter the race. When asked how Bloomberg could make an impact with his planned policy-oriented candidacy in a race that has been dominated by loud and nonspecific nativism, Weiner said that Bloomberg’s “cocktail buddies” are “GOP big wigs.”
The problem for Bloomberg is timing, as early March marks the deadline set by his advisers to be able to get him on the ballot in all 50 states. And at this point, according to Weiner, it’s just a waiting game.
“If Bernie and Trump both win Iowa and New Hampshire then he starts moving and then after the SEC [primary] he goes in,” Weiner said. At this stage, the race in Iowa on the Democratic side is essentially a dead heat between Sanders and Clinton, with the former edging her out slightly. In New Hampshire, Sanders has retained a fairly significant lead in a number of polls.
On the Republican side, even though Cruz had become the presumed winner of Iowa in the last month, Trump has since gained on him while keeping a huge lead in New Hampshire. So the idea that the criteria would exist for Bloomberg to make a late entry is not completely unforeseen.
“But not if Hillary is in OK shape,” Weiner said, citing a reason that would keep Bloomberg from entering even if Sanders wins both Iowa and New Hampshire.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess, but when asked if he thinks Sanders can keep up the momentum of his prospective Iowa and New Hampshire wins to get the nomination, Weiner simply said, “No.”