Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg described transgender people as "he, she, or it" and "some guy wearing a dress" in a newly uncovered video from 2019.
Bloomberg's comments were made at a forum hosted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency on March 21, 2019, in Manhattan, according to BuzzFeed News.
In the video, Bloomberg chided candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination for discussing transgender protections.
"If you go to the middle of the country, people would say: 'If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter,' that's not a winning formula for most people.'
"They care about healthcare. They care about education. They care about safety and all those kinds of things."
BuzzFeed noted the video was posted to YouTube shortly after the March event last year. Bloomberg was not a candidate for president at the time. And he accused Democrats running for president of being too far left.
"And so you can understand where somebody like [President Donald] Trump comes from," Bloomberg said. "You can understand when you look at the Democratic Party, they are so far left that two years ago there was nobody on their side who would take these positions, and today virtually all the candidates for president of the Democratic Party are so progressive. I don't know what progressive means."
A Bloomberg spokesperson said: "Mike understands that the transgender community has been under attack for decades and the advance of rights has not been equal."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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