NBC News Reporter: There’s ‘Intense Pressure Tonight’ on Bloomberg to Drop Out ‘For the Sake of Party Unity’
NBC’s National politics reporter Josh Lederman in West Palm, Florida, covering the Mike Bloomberg campaign reported on MSNBC Tuesday night that there is “intense pressure” on the former New York City mayor to drop out of the race for the White House.
The segment began with the NBC reporter stating that the pressure on the Bloomberg campaign to drop out is “intense” from “senior” Democratic officials who are urging the billionaire to clear a path for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Intense pressure tonight on Mike Bloomberg to bow out of the race – clear a path for Joe Biden. We’ve been talking to Democratic officials. Senior people within the party. People who have a lot of influence who have acknowledged they’re in touch with the Bloomberg campaign trying to make the case that now is the time for the sake of party unity to step aside. Particularly the party really coalesced behind Joe Biden.”
Lederman continued, “So far no, indications that will take place. I just spoke to a person close to the campaign who is saying, look, things changed pretty rapidly on…South Carolina’s primary day a few days ago. The Bloomberg campaign knew it would be a good night for Joe Biden.”
As for Bloomberg’s response, the former NYC mayor is “defiant” that Biden is taking votes from him and not the other way around.
“So far, Mike Bloomberg has been defiant. We heard from him earlier this morning that Miami, where he said that he’s not taking votes away from Joe Biden. Joe Biden is taking votes away from him. He said that his path to the nomination if there is one, is through a contested convention. Where nobody gets a majority of delegates and they duke it out at the convention,” Lederman concluded.
Sanders supporter Shaun King called out this report to his million-plus followers not long after it aired, but he inaccurately attributed it to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and characterized the details as Democratic Party officials “interfering with the primaries to stop Bernie Sanders.”
BREAKING: @MSNBC & @maddow just reported that multiple “senior officials” within the Democratic Party are interfering with the primaries to stop @BernieSanders.
They reported that the party has asked Bloomberg to drop out so that Biden would have an easier time against Bernie.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) March 3, 2020
Hours later, in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Maddow herself rebutted King in a quote tweet, smacking down his claims: “What? No. I didn’t report any such thing.”
What?
No. I didn’t report any such thing. https://t.co/qNKo6oWFKc
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 4, 2020
Watch above, via MSNBC.
