While Mike Bloomberg is quickly buying his way to the top of the Democratic nomination process, clips from his past may slow his momentum.
One such clip comes from the weekly radio show he hosted during his New York City mayoralty.
Over the course of several minutes, Bloomberg defends his controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy. And even worse for the former mayor now trying to run in an increasingly progressive Democratic Party, is that he said minorities weren’t being stopped-and-frisked enough.
"There's a couple of — one newspaper and one news service, they just keep saying ‘oh, it’s a disproportionate percentage of a particular ethnic group,’” Bloomberg said. “That may be, but it’s not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the [crime]. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little. It’s exactly the reverse of what they’re saying. I don’t know where they went to school, but they certainly didn’t take a math course. Or a logic course."
Since announcing his presidential run, Bloomberg has denounced his previous support for “stop-and-frisk.”
At a black church in New York, Bloomberg said last November: “I was focused on saving lives. But good intentions are not good enough. I can’t change history, however today I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong. And I’m sorry.”