Democratic presidential candidate for US and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks into the camera at a campaign event.
(Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
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What the Hell Was Going on With Mike Bloomberg’s Twitter Account Last Night?

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Vivian Kane
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Published: Jan 15, 2020 04:16 pm

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Mike Bloomberg wasn’t on the debate stage last night and likely won’t be any time soon, thanks to the DNC’s debate qualification rules. While Bloomberg isn’t polling terribly (some national polls even have him edging ahead of Buttigieg), candidates also need a certain number of individual donors to qualify and he has none. The choice to self-fund his campaign is both smart because no one wants to see a mega-billionaire asking for donations and also feels a bit like the political equivalent of “You can’t break up with me, I break up with you.”

Anyway, Bloomberg wasn’t on the stage but he sure did get a lot of attention from those following along on Twitter. Before the debate started, he tweeted a heads up that his campaign “may have a thing or two to say” during the event. But I don’t think anyone was expecting the “fun stuff” they had in store.

As a reminder, this is the actual, official Twitter account of Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. And here’s how they chose to kick off the night:

So I guess Bloomberg is on board with the whole “eat the rich” thing? I genuinely don’t know. Here are some other standout tweets from the night:

Remember last month when a comedian changed his Twitter bio to say he was a communications intern for Bloomberg and posted a fake supporter dance reminiscent of Buttigieg’s campaign’s “High Hopes” routine?

Last night’s tweets felt like Bloomberg saw that video and said “Yeah, those are the guys I want running my team for real.” None of it was offensive, it was just … stupid. Which, actually, coming from someone who is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into something for which he’s actively working to project a sense of snarky apathy, is pretty offensive. Especially when held in contrast to how other candidates denied a spot on the debate stage, like Julían Castro, have used their social media platforms during those events.

Bloomberg did, at one point, try to use the contrived wackiness to draw attention to a more serious point, but he did so from an entirely different account, meaning it felt like more of an afterthought and anyone who has retweets disabled (which is a lot of people) wouldn’t even see it.

Bloomberg’s campaign’s tweets might have gotten attention, but I hope he sees the overall reactions as the loss that they are.

(image: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

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Author
Image of Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.
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