The Political Insider

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg might be running as the “anti-Trump” and trying to portray Donald Trump as a “bully,” but his history as New York City’s mayor appears to tell a different story.

“I bill myself as the un-Trump,” Bloomberg said last week at a campaign rally.

Yet as New York City’s mayor from 2002 to 2013, Bloomberg behaved like the kind of authoritarian many Democrats insist Trump is when he changed the rules so that he could run for a third term.

RELATED: Trump Floats Third Term To Trigger Media, Will They Fall For It Again?

Who’s the Bully?

Then voters changed them back. Bloomberg joined them in that vote. What kind of Banana Republic stuff is this?

The Wall Street Journal reported as Bloomberg’s third tenure came to a close, “Perhaps Mr. Bloomberg’s most controversial move was running for a third term in 2009 by engineering the repeal of a law passed twice by voter referendum limiting city elected officials to two terms. That decision colored his final years in office, as his approval ratings fell from the high 60s and never again cracked 50% in his third term, according to Marist.’

“Voters reinstated term limits in 2010,” WSJ noted.

Bloomberg made the argument that he was the only person qualified to navigate the fallout of the 2008 global financial crisis. Yet almost half of New York City’s voters disagreed: Bloomberg won by a narrow margin of just 51 percent–a mere five points ahead of his challenger.

That’s no mandate.

The WSJ noted that in 2010, Bloomberg voted to reinstate a two-term limit, which allowed him to serve a third term, but no future candidates can do the same.

Bloomberg called his third term “an extraordinary one-time thing.”

Bloomberg has qualified for Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, but that too came about through a rules change that seemed to favor Bloomberg.

RELATED: Sanders Blasts Bloomberg For Trying To ‘Buy The Presidency’

Bernie Claims Bloomberg is Trying to Buy the Election

Current 2020 Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders has even accused Bloomberg of trying to buy the election.

“Hey guys, how do you buy the presidency? Well, you buy the presidency, at least he’s going to try to buy the presidency, by spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on TV ads,” Sanders said at a Nevada rally on Sunday.

“I didn’t see Mike in Iowa … I didn’t see Mike in New Hampshire. … Hey, you know what? I didn’t see him here in Nevada! Well, I got news for Mr. Bloomberg, and that is the American people are sick and tired of billionaires buying elections,” Sanders added.