Billionaire candidate Bloomberg rides BART to Oakland, meets with Mayor Schaaf
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes BART to Oakland. Jan. 17, 2020 Credit: Dragana Nikolajevic
OAKLAND, Calif. - Check out how Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg gets around.
The 14th richest person in the world took BART on Friday, heading from San Francisco to Oakland where he met with Mayor Libby Schaaf outside Beauty’s Bagel Shop on Franklin Street.
From there, New York's former mayor attended an organizing event at Everett and Jones BBQ in Jack London Square.
He said he's been working with Oakland for years on issues such as climate change, mass transit, and infrastructure.
"Let me be clear. I am running to defeat Donald Trump. That's the whole thing," Bloomberg said at the rally.
His jabs at the 45th president delighted the crowd. "He's a climate denier and I'm an engineer. I actually believe in facts and data and science," he said to applause.
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes BART to Oakland. Jan. 17, 2020 Credit: Dragana Nikolajevic
Bloomberg's rally was aimed at winning California's Primary Election on March 3. It holds the nation's largest cache of delegates and precedes this summer's Democratic National Convention.
The self-made, self-financed billionaire said he knows all about what being born without a silver spoon is because his father never made more than $6,000 a year.
"My father once told me, 'Whether rich or poor, we are all in this together,'" Bloomberg said.
We asked what Bloomberg's strategy was to beat President Trump in the election.
"The answer is, if you want to win, you have to attract some people from the other side. I can beat him because, I think I can attract the moderates from the Republicans that would not cross the aisle for any other candidates."
We also spoke to some of the people on hand at Everett and Jones BBQ. One woman said his temperament would do well against Trump and maybe even get under the president's skin.
"Bloomberg is everything Trump pretends to be and wants to be," said Allison Kaufman. "He's actually self made. He's actually a billionaire. He's actually philanthropic."