Democratic Presidential candidate and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued an apology for a 2016 incident in which he referred to transgender people as “men in dresses” and “it.” The candidate has also come under fire for allegedly misleading voters about his support of marriage equality.
In a statement to NewNowNext, Bloomberg lamented his past remarks, offering up his mea culpa. “It was a poor attempt to describe how some who oppose transgender equality think about this issue—and those words do not reflect my unwavering support for equality for transgender Americans,” Bloomberg said in is statement. “I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the members of the transgender community. As mayor, I signed a sweeping transgender civil rights bill and, as president, will promote policies that advance equality for transgender Americans who have been attacked by the Trump administration over the past three years.”
The apology follows weeks of criticism of Bloomberg for alleged homophobic and transphobic remarks. No sooner had Bloomberg issued his statement, then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo–a fellow Democrat–slammed Bloomberg over claims that he, Bloomberg, is responsible for ushering in marriage equality in New York in 2011.
Related: Michael Bloomberg was eviscerated on stage at last night’s debate. And then came the memes…
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“I went up to Albany, and I went to the Republicans, and I sat down with a bunch of them, and I convinced the Republicans — even though I was a very liberal New York City mayor — I convinced them to vote for gay marriage,” Bloomberg said on CNN Wednesday night.
Here' Gov. Cuomo's comments about Bloomberg and his role in same-sex marriage. Republicans today downplayed his role in the vote, though Bloomberg did meet with them at the time pic.twitter.com/UkUmcVdckG
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) February 27, 2020
Cuomo denied Bloomberg’s claims the following day during a press conference, labeling them “demonstrably false.” “You should not say something that is demonstrably false, on an immediate basis,” Cuomo said. The governor went on to point out that while Bloomberg did favor marriage equality and met with New York Senate Republicans to discuss the issue, only four GOP Senators ended up supporting the bill. “Mike Bloomberg had nothing to do with it,” Cuomo said. “They did it out of conscience.”
According to Spectrum News, three of the four senators said they had little contact with Bloomberg and cited Cuomo as the driving force behind their votes.
winemaker
Good ole mikey bloomberg just another ultra liberal ‘yiddiot’ just like his fellow jew bastard and communist sanders and lizzie, liawatha warren trying to make this great nation into a socialist SHIT HOLE with all their ‘free this and free that’ that’ll be paid for by the taxpayers pure and simple. This thieving and lying bastard will do and say anything to get what he wants and has absolutely no substance. Really time to drain the swamp of these liberal communists for good! Wake up gay community for once in your lives
Taiyoken
But, Bloomberg is a republican who wants nothing that Bernie or Warren (or even Pete or Amy) is standing for. The trolls are becoming even more incoherent.
Maybe try those websites the bots are always pushing, winemaker, because you need to get laid.
Toofie
Moderators must be off today…
Kangol2
WTF is wrong you with you, @whinemacher, spewing this right-wing anti-Semitic crap? Do you think you get a pass as a gay person, if you are, just because you’re a conservative Drumpf lover? You clearly have no clue about any of these candidates, but your anti-Semitism is clear as day. Seriously, GTFOH with that garbage!
Hussain-TheCanadian
WTF!!
This racist mofo needs to be blocked NOW, this is unacceptable Queerty, where the fck are the moderators???
HEY Whinemaker, I know I snatched your white hood from you the other day, so give me a second I’m wiping my @ss with it before I return it.
DuMaurier
The instant Bloomberg announced his candidacy my first thought was, “What does he bring to the race we needed but didn’t have?” I can’t see anything except money; we already have “moderate” candidates with unfortunate baggage. On the other hand, no matter how much depressing stuff he has in his background, if he gets the nom (not thinking that’s gonna happen), I’ll vote for him, of course. If anything, his problematic history on things like this, stop-and-frisk, etc, may cause him to go farther in the opposite direction to prove he’s not “like that”. He is not my candidate, but he’d be a towering statesman compared to what we have now.
JessPH
How about the fact that Bloomberg can deliver results?
Creamsicle
@JessPH. Which results are you talking about? Stop & Frisk? Overseeing an increasingly gentrified city? The man bends in the political winds and thinks he can buy politics. It’s important to deny him the nomination to send the message that presidencies are not for sale.
Even Biden, with his borderline senility, would be a better pick than Bloomberg. You think he’ll be able to outdo the Trump base? Bloomberg is everything that the Trump base despises.
JessPH
Bloomberg has an outstanding public service record. That is why he was elected THREE TIMES as mayor of very LIBERAL New York City even if he was a Republican. Bernie has been in the Senate for decades and he has no single major accomplishment. Not a single one.
Kangol2
Are you just saying that because you heard it, or do you really know about Bloomberg’s tenure as NYC mayor? You might be surprised to know that Bloomberg, who left the GOP in 2008, had to outspend a lackluster Democrat named Bill Thompson 3 to 1 to win that 3rd term in 2009, by a mere 50,000 votes (in a city of 8 million people), in an election which barely 1.5 million+ voters showed up for, and got in trouble with massive donations to a minor (Independent Party) candidate.
Bloomberg’s terms were full of problems, to put it kindly. He’s smart and competent, but he’s politically to the right of every other one of the other candidates running in the Democratic primary. I guess we’ll see how things go, but second to last thing this country needs right now is a technocratic, neoliberal, nanny state billionaire who has zero–ZERO–clue about how regular Americans live. The last thing, of course, is the lying, impeached corrupt treasonous insecure whiny nutcase currently occupying the White House. If it comes down to Bloomie vs. Putin’s Orangina, though, Bloomie gets my vote.
Taiyoken
@JessPH
And what are Bloomberg’s accomplishments? Stop-and frisk, Banning the big gulp, Vetoing a minimum wage increase. Yeah, Bloomberg’s great. Ooh, elected 3 times…. Bernie’s been elected/re-elected every time he’s ran for the House or Senate, more than 8 times. He’s the most popular politician in the country.
Google Bernie accomplishments before spouting right-wing talking point. Bernie has been in the senate 17 years, not decades.
He’s known as the “amendment king” because he always manages to slip amendments into bills for the benefit of the American people. such as an amendment to get financial assistance for child care to children whose parents are in the military.
He wrote a 16 billion dollar veterans bill that McCain signed into and Obama signed into law.
He got a $15 minimum wage for Disney and Amazon workers.
There are whole lists of Bernie’s accomplishments because of people like you using this Fox News talking point.
But you do not do a bit research, Not a single bit.
=”How about the fact that Bloomberg can deliver results?”
-What do you base that on? Certainly not the polls.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Don’t forget those damn bicycle racks he installed all over NYC and even told a brand new high rise condo with multi-million dollar price tags that complained about why they weren’t consulted tough luck, more or less. The most expensive condo in that place was five million dollars so to a man worth sixty billon dollars they are no doubt project dwellers in comparison. Welcome to NYC.
GayEGO
My partner and I live in Massachusetts and we were able to get married in 2004 as Massachusetts was the first state to legalize marriage equality. The company I worked at had a party for us.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Bloomburg and I aren’t too far apart in generational thinking. I think its regrettable that he used the word it but the way I see what he said regarding trans was his remembrance of the days when drag queens were used to describe crossdressing men. Nowadays it isn’t worth arguing that no matter the name change no one group, no matter what they claim to have removed, is no longer functional or thanks to harmon pills that aid (or give the effect) what isn’t natural is going to have a lasting effect on gender. If thats what they say they are then we have no other choice but to accept it. To a degree of course.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
There is no perfect candidate. However the only one who can beat the Orange Puppet is Bloomberg. There are multiple polls that show many who voted for the homophibic maniac in the White House would vote for Bloomberg however never for Sanders.
The Orange Puppet has already appointed over 25% of the Federal Judiciary to lifetime terms. EVERY one of them came on recommendation of the Federalist Society’s anti-Gay screening committee. And as RBG’S health is tenous at best. Another conservative Justice on the SCOTUS and every bit of progress we made in the last 30 years is erased
Taiyoken
There are more polls, not only now but going back to 2016, showing that Bernie beats Trump and by a wider margin than anyone else (in 2016 or 2020) Bloomberg beats trump in the polls the same way Hillary did, i.e. a small bit, within the margin of error. Likewise there are polls showing a greater number of Democrats would never vote for Bloomberg (or Steyer) than those who would never vote for Bernie. Bernie attracts the youth vote and the minority vote, which is how democrats win (high voter turnout) Bloomberg repels both demographics, the same way Hillary repels them. Bernie has the momentum, the most popular policies, the polling, and the grassroots support. If you ACTUALLY want to beat Trump(Which I don’t believe you do, since you keep shilling for the guy who consistently does the worst in match-up polls, has the worst policies, has the worst record, and has the least amount of support ) You’d support the candidate who’s most likely to do it according to the most lines of evidence. After all we need someone to appoint judges, right?
And what makes you think Bloomberg would appoint good judges? He’s been an authoritarian conservative his entire life. Most of those republican members of congress who stymied Obama’s agenda? Bloomberg bought them, and Obama isn’t a good enough political to fight back.
Of course all this is purely academic. If Bernie gets a plurality of the votes and the DNC don’t nominate him then NO democrat will win as the base will refuse to turn out for an obviously rigged system where their votes don’t matter.The fact that the DNC cheated in 2016 affected base turn out then, too.
winemaker
An addendum and apologies to anyone of the Jewish faith. I’m not anti semitic in any way but bloombutt is nothing more than a rich socialist bastard pure and simple. He along with all the other liberal buffoons running have one common denominator; ‘free this and free that’ for anyone and everyone with no feasible way to pay for this swag’. Anyone with half a brain knows the taxpayers will be stuck paying for this as has been in the past and will be now. Really most of us are sick and tired of supporting deadbeats and those who never paid into the pot and thus are ineligible for any public service. Ask anyone on Medicare what they think of ‘free Medicare for all’ and their responses couldn’t be printed. This and free college and student loan forgiveness, not on my watch! As far as student loan repayment, let those who took out the loans struggle to repay them like many of us did without any help. Time for adults to act responsibly instead of foisting their responsibilities on others. .Bloombutt’s message is obvious, I’ve got a great life, S**T loads of money, a great house the best healthcare and i can do whatever i damned well please and for the rest of you ‘schlebubs’, there’s the gutter, eat S**T and rot. BTW: those 700 thousand people in New York he got healthcare for,they were ‘Medicaid’ recipients and most of them were shall we say ‘ineligible as thy never paid into the tax pot