Just as Mike Bloomberg is starting to get traction with African-American voters, Trevor Noah has turned his attention to the former New York City mayor and what could end up being the biggest roadblock in his attempt to win over the Democratic primary.
After briefly touching on the big Twitter fight that dominated headlines on Thursday, the Daily Show host said that right now Donald Trump’s taunts are “the least of Mike Bloomberg’s problems” while “the real threat to Bloomberg’s campaign is his past.”
Noah was of course referring to a series of recently unearthed audio and video clips in which Bloomberg defends the controversial police tactic of “stop and frisk,” even going so far as to say that it was meant to target minorities.
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“Wow, that is not a good look,” the host said in response. “While Bloomberg is out there trying to win the black vote in 2020, he’s on tape in 2015 talking about black people like they’re crime piñatas.” Noah predicted the comments would “definitely hurt” the candidate with black voters “the same way you would lose white voters if a tape came out of you saying that pets aren’t the same as babies.”
Noah was no more impressed with Bloomberg’s attempts to respond to the scandal. “It was five years ago,” the candidate said in a recent press conference. “And, you know, it’s just not the way that I think and it doesn’t reflect what I do every day.”
“Of course it doesn’t reflect what you do every day,” the host replied. “You’re not the mayor anymore. Nobody thinks you’re stopping and frisking black people on your personal time. Mostly because you can’t reach their pockets.”
As for his excuse that it was five years ago, Noah asked, “What difference is that supposed to make for you?” He imagined Bloomberg saying, “Look, five years ago I was just a 72-year-old man, I didn’t know any better. I’m much older now, which automatically makes you less racist.”
“As much as Bloomberg is trying to reposition himself now that he needs the support of black voters,” he added, “he encouraged his police department to treat black people like they were all criminals.”
Noah concluded by noting that despite Bloomberg’s efforts at damage control, “Reporters won’t let this story go. They keep hassling him at events, questioning him about his motives, just trying to find any little thing that he’s done wrong. It must be so frustrating for him. And to that I say, Mike Bloomberg, welcome to the world of stop and frisk.”
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