Mike Bloomberg was in the crosshairs of other Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday — with his rivals going on TV to slam his big-budget national ad blitz, past policies and controversial remarks.
“The point is that $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record,” former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“You take a look at the stop-and-frisk proposals . . . You take a look at what he’s done relative to the African-American community,’’ Biden said.
“I’m anxious to debate Michael on the issues relating to, you know, what we’re going to face in Super Tuesday.”
Bloomberg has yet to take part in a primary, or a caucus, or even a debate, but has been rising in many national and state polls.
He hasn’t yet qualified for Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas but he has until Tuesday to meet party criteria based on polling data.
The Nevada caucuses are on Saturday, but Bloomberg decided to bypass that race and three other early primary contests — Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — to consolidate his efforts in the delegate-rich contests on Super Tuesday, March 3, when voters in 14 states, including California and Texas, go to the polls.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said the former three-term New York mayor, who has spent more than $300 million on campaign ads so far, must square off face-to-face with the other candidates.
“I don’t think you should be able to hide behind airwaves and huge ad buys,” Klobuchar said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I know I’m not going to be able to beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage.”
And Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., took aim at new reports that Bloomberg made sexist remarks in the past.
“I think he’s going to have to answer for that and speak to it,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
“It is going to be critical for us to have a nominee who can authentically lead and who can show growth on these challenges.”
A Washington Post report over the weekend aired “profane, sexist” quotes attributed to Bloomberg from a booklet one of his company’s aides put together in 1990.
A spokesman for Bloomberg insisted that it was a “gag gift” and the quotes weren’t things he actually said.