In recent days, the conservative news site the Drudge Report came out with the stunning claim that former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was considering getting none other than Hillary Clinton to be his running mate for his presidential bid. Now, Clinton has shot down that speculation, seemingly insisting that she would not do it. She made the abrupt revelation during an interview in Puerto Rico while she was there for a Clinton Global Initiative event.
When asked if she’d serve as Bloomberg’s running mate during that Tuesday talk, she commented simply:
‘Oh no. I’m just waiting and watching as this plays out. I will support whoever the nominee is.’
Listen:
Allegedly, the supposed Bloomberg speculation about picking Clinton as vice presidential candidate grew from polls showing good results when the two of them were paired against Trump and Pence. The Bloomberg campaign essentially refused to either confirm or deny the claim that they’d been considering Hillary, commenting:
‘We are focused on the primary and the debate, not VP speculation.’
At one point, there’d been speculation that Hillary herself might jump in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, which would have been her third presidential campaign, and last November during a BBC interview, she said that she wasn’t planning on it but would “never say never.”
In an interview this month on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Clinton elaborated:
‘I never say never because I do believe in serving my country.’
Of course, it’s far from a given that Bloomberg himself will make it to the point where he has to choose a running mate. Currently, he’s rising in national (and key state) polls, and he’s secured a spot on a debate stage with fellow candidates for the first time. He’ll debate in both Nevada and South Carolina. Currently, he’s placing an average of third in national polls, and he’s doing even better in some individual surveys, although Bernie Sanders remains the frontrunner, with an average ten percent lead over his closest competitor.
