Bloomberg: Next generation of Democrats needs to ‘earn their spurs’

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) on Sunday said a younger generation of Democrats needs to “earn their spurs” before they “own the right to set the agenda.”

“I’m not a believer that, ‘oh, there’s a new generation coming along and they own the right to set the agenda.’ I think you earn your spurs, and you earn the right to set an agenda by showing people that what you’ve been doing is working,” Bloomberg said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

{mosads}“I think there’s an awful lot to be said for experience and accomplishment. There’s a value to having been there, done that, and to understand if there was simple solutions to complex problems we would have solved those problems,” he added.

Asked if Democrats can win elections running on progressive agenda items, Bloomberg responded, “I think if you are very progressive, no. I think the public wants evolutionary change, not revolutionary change.”

Bloomberg, who was a Republican until 2005, announced last October that he had changed his affiliation to Democratic. 

.@margbrennan: Can Democrats win if they bill themselves as progressives? @MikeBloomberg: I think if you are very progressive, no. I think the public wants evolutionary change, not revolutionary change. pic.twitter.com/lhZnmstE3I

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 11, 2019

However, Bloomberg told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that he agreed with various Democratic candidates’ characterizations of President Trump as a racist in the wake of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

“[W]hat the president says is very important, and if he supports or says nice things about racists, it encourages racism. If he goes and says nice things about white supremacists, he encourages that kind of violence,” Bloomberg said.

The suspect in the shooting, which killed 22 people, has told police he targeted “Mexicans” and has been tied to a racist manifesto decrying the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”