Mike Bloomberg is aggressively boring and 'unable to empathize with other people's pain', say friends
Mike Bloomberg is an aggressively boring human being, or at least that's what those close to him seem to think.
“The thing about Mike is he actually isn’t that interesting — he’s smart, and you can have a good time talking to him, but it’s like talking to any old Jewish relative of mine,” one ex-employee told New York magazine. “The first time I met him, he started complaining about some soup he got that didn’t taste right. I just met the guy, and he was, like, complaining about his sweet-and-sour soup.”
A friend of the former New York City mayor spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, describing Bloomberg was a bit “Asperger’s-y” and that he was unable to empathize with other people's pain.
The 2020 presidential hopeful has so far spent more than half a billion dollars as part of his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination, with his rivals accusing him of trying to "buy out" the Democratic Party.
But it seems Bloomberg also takes a blunt view of Trump and politics.
“Mike once said to me, ‘The only way the Republicans abandon Donald is if he f–ks a child or wakes up in bed next to a dead person,’” one acquaintance reportedly told the magazine.
But some others think there is a human side to Bloomberg—and it usually comes out after he's knocked a few back.
“Mike gets loosey-goosey on wine, visibly shining, but if you really try to get him to open up then, sure enough, he gets flustered and retreats into his shell,” one reporter claimed.
The financial giant recently grabbed headlines following a major slip-up in Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate as he appeared to boast that he essentially "bought" the Democratic majority in Congress in 2018.
"Let’s just go on the record. They talk about 40 Democrats," Bloomberg said. "Twenty-one of those are people that I spent a hundred million dollars to help elect."
"All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bough — I, I got them," he slipped.
Even if Bloomberg is somehow able to clinch the Democratic nomination with his vast resources, it's fairly obvious which of the two New York billionaires would dominate the debate stage come November.