Maggie Haberman Pours Cold Water on Bloomberg White House Bid: ‘Going to Get Ugly Very Quickly’

If Maggie Haberman played professional baseball, she would likely be considered a “five-tool” player, that is to say, someone who offers top-level expertise on a number of facets of the game. Haberman’s game? Politics. And the New York Times White House reporter is not just something of an expert on the ins and outs of the Trump administration, but her time as a reporter in New York City makes her something of an expert on former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Haberman’s NY Times colleague Alex Burns broke news on Thursday that Bloomberg was seriously considering throwing his hat into the presidential ring, by filing to be included on the Alabaman primary ballot, which raised immediate questions about the viability of current Democratic presidential candidates, as well as the viability of Bloomberg himself.

CNN New Day anchor John Berman introduced Haberman as a “decorated political reporter” before noting that his guest had covered Bloomberg as mayor. He then asked for her insight.

It would be charitable to describe Haberman’s take on Bloomberg’s political future as skeptical, as she proceeded to reveal all the hurdles she sees Bloomberg has to clear.

Noting that “Bloomberg has wanted to run for president for a long time,” Haberman first noted all the reasons why the billionaire would want to get into the race, namely concern for the current candidacy. She then offered that she remained “something of a skeptic” and listed a number of reasons why.

She then landed with “never say never,” before adding “but I think he has a lot of hurdles and I think this is going to get ugly very quickly.”

That last bit? Well, it makes for a perfect pull quote to be featured in a Mediaite headline, so here we are.

Good chat.

Watch above via CNN.