Tom Steyer pits his billions against Bloomberg's in TV ad slamming 'racist' policies

Democratic presidential candidates may have turned on Michael Bloomberg, but only Tom Steyer is putting money on the sentiment.

In his latest TV ad, Steyer — who's a billionaire like Bloomberg, albeit about 50 times less rich — gives a megaphone to what some other Democrats have been saying. He pulls out controversial clips of Bloomberg defending the stop and frisk program he furthered "as the Republican mayor of New York City," and then slams Bloomberg's entire past agenda as "racist" in the seven-figure ad buy, The Associated Press reports.

Steyer's ad is full of Bloomberg's own words, including clips of him blaming the 2008 financial crisis on redlining, which denied loans to people in low-income and minority neighborhoods. "Those policies were racist, and Mike Bloomberg was wrong to support them," a voiceover says before promising Steyer "will be a president for all of America."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Bloomberg will make his Democratic debate debut on Wednesday night after meeting the polling threshold needed to qualify. Steyer won't be at the debate, but other Democrats will surely take up his attacks on Bloomberg.