Bloomberg Tells Press to Stop Asking About His Mayoral Endorsement

Mayor Michael Bloomberg would really prefer if reporters would cease inquiring about which candidate he’ll ultimately endorse in the race

(Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Getty)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg would really prefer if reporters would cease inquiring about which candidate he’ll ultimately endorse in the race to replace him this year. And he conveyed that message again and again at an unrelated press conference earlier this morning.

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“I know who I’m going to vote for and I may change my mind between now and then,” Mr. Bloomberg declared at one point. “If I do, you’re not going to know about it.”

“Uh, let me–” Mr. Bloomberg paused.

“Wrap up,” Marc La Vorgna, Mr. Bloomberg’s press secretary, jumped in. The mayor, however, wasn’t about to wrap up.

“These questions aren’t substantive and don’t inform the public and the reasons that we’re trying to help the press is to give the public the information,” he stated.

The journalists present were also not about to wrap up on the topic. While Mr. Bloomberg is close to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, he has also reportedly been dissatisfied with the current crop of mayoral candidates and he recently slammed Ms. Quinn’s support of an inspector general for the city’s police department. Asked about these sorts of potential misgivings, Mr. Bloomberg continued his adamant refusal to weigh in on the race.

“If I have something to say, I’ll say it directly to the public,” he said. “And who I’m going to vote for I may never choose to say. No, I don’t think it’s as important as talking about smoking and saving lives and things like that. Keep in mind the election you’re talking about is how many months away? Why on Earth would you think it’s a subject that’s informative to the public today? I don’t get it.”

After yet another question pertaining to his endorsement, Mr. Bloomberg accused the reporters of not only wasting their own time, but their organization’s time as well.

“That’s one of the frustrating things, you say it and you say it until you want a different answer,” he said. “You know, you have a right to ask it but I don’t know why we’re going to keep having press conferences and wasting our time. We’re not going to spend the whole time between now and the election talking about who I’m going to vote for. If I ever want to endorse somebody, I will tell you. If I want to tell you who I vote for, I will tell you, but it won’t come because you asked. So, you’re just wasting your employers’s time. There’s got to be other things that would generate stories that would sell your television program and advertising, your radio advertising, your newspaper advertising.”

Bloomberg Tells Press to Stop Asking About His Mayoral Endorsement