The billionaire's entry into the US presidential race had also met with criticism from his competitors. Now Bloomberg, who pumps substantial sums of money into the election campaign, will be part of a TV debate for the first time. An exchange of blows is programmed.
Washington (dpa) - For the first time, the US presidential applicant and billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be on a stage in a television debate with his rivals with the Democrats.
Bloomberg qualified for the Las Vegas debate this Wednesday, which falls into Thursday night after German time. A US-wide survey currently sees the former New York Mayor in second place with 19 percent support in the democratic field of applicants. Leader Senator Bernie Sanders from the US state of Vermont is at the top with 31 percent. In December, the billionaire Bloomberg was still 4 percent in the corresponding survey.
With Bloomberg's participation, an exciting exchange of blows is imminent in the TV debate. His later entry into the race for the presidential candidacy had also met with criticism in his own party. Left-wing presidential applicants such as Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren complained that a difficult candidate could not buy the election. Bloomberg had only announced his candidacy in late November. His competitors had been campaigning for months. The billionaire who once founded the financial and media company named after him is considered one of the richest men in the world and has enormous funds for the election campaign.
With the help of his money, he pursues an idiosyncratic strategy in the election campaign. In the primaries, Bloomberg relies on "Super Tuesday" in March, which has primaries to be held in more than a dozen states - including large states such as California or Texas, where hundreds of delegate votes will be cast for the Democratic nomination convention in the summer. Bloomberg has spent tens of millions of dollars on television advertising in the "Super Tuesday" countries. He does not accept donations, but finances his campaign himself.
The qualification for the debate is the latest sign that "Mike's plan and ability to defeat Donald Trump are becoming more and more popular with Americans," campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. "There is a desire for a proven leader in every corner of this country."
US President Donald Trump, on the other hand, accused Bloomberg of "illegally buying" the Democrats' nomination. The massive spending of the former New York Mayor represented "large-scale" illegal campaign funding, Republican Trump claimed on Twitter on Tuesday. Bloomberg is buying numerous supporters with the many donations he has distributed, many of whom used to be his opponents, Trump wrote. "Isn't that a bribe?" he asked on Twitter. Bloomberg funds its campaign from its own resources and therefore does not accept donations.
The Democrats had recently changed the conditions for participating in the TV debates. The presidential applicants no longer have to show a certain number of individual donations - which also made Bloomberg's participation possible. To qualify for the Nevada debate, a presidential candidate must either have won at least one delegate in the first two primaries, at least 10 percent in four nationwide polls, or must have won two polls in South Carolina or Nevada get at least 12 percent of the vote.
In addition to Bloomberg, Sanders and Warren, Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, Barack Obama's former Vice President Joe Biden and ex-Mayor will also take part in the debate in the metropolis of Las Vegas, which will take place in Nevada immediately before the area code on Saturday Pete Buttigieg expects. Buttigieg had become the target of attacks by his competitors after his surprisingly good results in the first preselection in the race for the US presidential candidacy.