Bloomberg Aide Denies Campaign Bought Off Debate Crowd – By Tessa Stuart (Rolling Stone) / Feb 25 2020
The crowd loudly backed the New York billionaire, but the campaign insists the support was organic
“Mayor Bloomberg has a solid and strong and enthusiastic base of support,” Bernie Sanders said from the debate stage in South Carolina Tuesday night. “Problem is, they’re all billionaires.”
It was a tidy one-liner (with the bonus that it happens to have a basis in reality: Jeff Bezos was among those who reportedly lobbied the former New York mayor to get in the race), but the joke was met, somewhat mystifyingly, by a loud round of boos from the debate-night crowd in South Carolina.
The same crowd had, for most of the night, been enthusiastically erupting at a noticeable volume for every answer Michael Bloomberg gave — including when he very nearly admitted that he “bought” 21 new members of Congress in 2018.
It was enough to prompt speculation that Team Bloomberg may have splurged on a cheering section to boost the beleaguered billionaire’s confidence after he was practically ethered live onstage in Las Vegas less than a week before.
Sanders surrogate Nina Turner voiced her suspicions outright:
Continue to article: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/south-carolina-debate-crowd-bloomberg-team-denies-buying-the-room-956447/
