D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who recently endorsed Michael Bloomberg for the 2020 presidential election, went on CNN and defended him in response to a resurfaced recording, where he promoted his controversial policing tactics as mayor of New York City.
“Mike has expressed his mistake in supporting the policy,” she said, when asked by CNN‘s Erin Burnett on Wednesday about her reaction to Bloomberg’s statements in the audio clip. “I know that before he left office, the practice stopped in New York City. And 95 percent of those types of stops stopped before he left office.”
Acknowledging that the stop and frisk policies in the city “disproportionately impacted black and brown communities,” Bowser stated that the former New York mayor also invested in young men of color, adding that he is now working on ways of supporting young men of color in terms of homeownership, employment, and education.
“We all agree that the practice of stop and frisk was overused in New York City, and it stopped at the end of Mike’s term,” she noted. Bowser’s remarks sparked criticism on Twitter.
Muriel Bowser didn't endorse Bloomberg until he had donated a significant amount of money to DC. Now she's on CNN defending stop and frisk, a program that detained and harassed millions of innocent Black & Brown people. Bloomberg is an oligarch whose buying Dem mayors. https://t.co/L7pJt3yovv
— Le'Mont from corporate 🥳 (@LeMontPierreC) February 13, 2020
In the 2015 recording, Bloomberg says “People say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana who are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why’d we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you should get the guns out of the kids’ hands is throw them against the wall and frisk them.”
Last month, Mayor Bowser announced her endorsement of Bloomberg’s campaign for the 2020 presidential election.
“We can resolve our most pressing problems if we have the right leader to turn innovative ideas into reality. Mike Bloomberg is a problem-solver with a proven track record of getting things done. He’s a mentor and friend and I’m proud to endorse him for president,” Bowser said in a Twitter post.