On Monday, videos emerged of billionaire presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg belittling farmers and mechanics, as well as making apparent racist jabs at young black and Latino males.
At an Oxford University forum in England, Bloomberg said, “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that.”
“Then we had 300 years of the industrial society,” he continued. “You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow, and you can have a job.”
Another video surfaced showing Bloomberg target young black and Latino males age 16 to 25, saying these men do not have prospects. Bloomberg said, “There’s this cohort of black and Latino males age, let’s say 16 to 25 that don’t have any jobs, don’t have any prospects, don’t know how to find jobs, don’t know that they—what their skillsets are, don’t know how to behave in the workplace where they have to work collaboratively.”
The comments come days before the Democrat primary Debate on February 19th, ahead of the Nevada primary caucus. Tensions seem to be rising as the days get nearer to election day, especially with critical minority votes in the Silver State.