Michael Bloomberg hits back at Trump's 'Mini Mike' height jibe, says 'I stand twice as tall as he does'
President Trump attacked Michael Bloomberg in a series of scathing tweets on Sunday morning as well as in a preview of a pre-Super Bowl interview. Branding the New York billionaire "Mini Mike," he claimed the former mayor wants a box to stand on during a Democratic presidential debate.
“Mini Mike is now negotiating both to get on the Democrat Primary debate stage, and to have the right to stand on boxes, or a lift, during the debates,” Trump tweeted about the 5-foot-8 Bloomberg. “This is sometimes done, but really not fair!”
The President then took aim at Bloomberg's stature once again during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox’s Super Bowl pre-game programming scheduled to air Sunday, the New York Post reports.
“I just think of little. Now he wants a box for the debates to stand on. Okay, it’s okay, there’s nothing wrong. You could be short, why should he get a box to stand on, OK? He wants a box for the debates,” Trump is heard saying in a teaser of the interview Hannity played on “Fox & Friends.”
“Why should he be entitled to that? Does that mean everyone else gets a box?” he asked.
Furthermore, the commander-in-chief said he would "love" to run against the financial and media mogul.
However, Bloomberg's campaign has said Trump is lying about his need for a box.
“He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan,” campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg shared a video of his response to a reporter's question about Trump's attacks.
"The President lies," Bloomberg responded. "He lies about everything. So, it shouldn't be a surprise that he said things like that."
"I stand twice as tall as he does on the stage, the stage that matters," he asserted.
In his tweets, Trump mocked how the New York billionaire had spent more than a quarter-billion dollars on political advertisements ever since he entered the race in November. According to the President, all the money spent by Bloomberg will amount to nothing. “Many of the ads you are watching were paid for by Mini Mike Bloomberg. He is going nowhere, just wasting his money, but he is getting the DNC to rig the election against Crazy Bernie, something they wouldn’t do for @CoryBooker and others. They are doing it to Bernie again, 2016,” he said.
“Mini Mike is part of the Fake News. They are all working together. In fact, Bloomberg isn’t covering himself (too boring to do), or other Dems. Only Trump. That sounds fair! It’s all the Fake News Media, and that’s why nobody believes in them anymore,” Trump wrote in the first tweet at 12:10 a.m.
In order to accommodate Bloomberg's candidacy, the Democratic National Committee has modified the criteria for qualifying for the next presidential debate slated for February 19. The changes, which eliminate donor requirements but double polling requirement, would allow Bloomberg to make it on stage for the first time — especially since he is self-financing his campaign.
In order to qualify, candidates will be expected to reach at least 10 percent in four polls released between January 15 and February 18, or 12 percent in surveys conducted in South Carolina and Nevada.
That said, former Vice President Joe Biden and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have already reached that polling threshold.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is yet to make the cut.