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(Scott Morgan / Reuters)
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, is reportedly considering a presidential run.
But rather than propelling him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a Bloomberg campaign could force a reckoning over a long history of allegations about the ways in which he—or his namesake company—have undermined women.
Bloomberg hasn’t really faced accountability. My colleague Megan Garber, who offers a clear voice in the tangled era of #MeToo, wrote last year about Bloomberg’s history:
These reports suggest the extent of the blind spot. They also suggest, however, the expansive underbelly of #MeToo: the easy entitlements by which men come to see women as existing in part for their pleasure. The stories told of Bloomberg paint a picture of self-centric power, of moral tautologies, of limited empathies.
Despite this recent flurry of activity, Bloomberg may yet decide to forgo a 2020 bid; in fact, when it comes to running for president, he has a penchant for crying wolf.
For a decade, the centrist billionaire has played a game of almost running, and then vowing that he’ll definitely not run. In March 2010, for example, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bloomberg was laying the groundwork for a 2012 run. A few months later, Bloomberg told Katie Couric that he was “not going to run for president, period, End of story.”
