Political News:
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens BloombergDeval Patrick beefs up campaign staff Buttigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll Bloomberg ties with Harris, Klobuchar in new national poll MORE on Tuesday said he believes the country needs “an awful lot more immigrants rather than less,” as the former New York City mayor hits the campaign trail after his late entry into the 2020 Democratic primary.
The Associated Press reports Bloomberg’s comments came on his second day on the campaign trail after entering the field just last week.
“We need immigrants to take all the different kinds of jobs that the country needs — improve our culture, our cuisine, our religion, our dialogue and certainly improve our economy,” Bloomberg said while speaking at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, according to the AP.
The billionaire sought to quickly contrast his stance on immigration with that of the current administration, blasting President Trump
Donald John TrumpTrump at rally vows to supporters no name change for ‘Thanksgiving’ Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terror organizations State Dept. official describes frantic effort to save recalled Ukraine ambassador MORE for some of the policies enacted while he’s been in office, including separating families at the border.
“Ripping kids away from their parents is a disgrace,” he said.
During the campaign stop, Bloomberg also repeated his previous apology for the stop-and-frisk strategy the New York Police Department implemented while he was mayor.
“How many times do you hear elected officials say, ‘I made a mistake’?” Bloomberg asked. “None of us do everything perfectly. I’m sorry it happened, I can’t rewrite history. Let’s get on with it.”
In one of the first national polls since announcing his candidacy, Bloomberg garnered 3 percent support in the CNN survey.