MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” went over the pundit class’ reactions on Monday to news that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg might hop into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski shared Axios reporting that said Bloomberg’s decision to file the necessary paperwork was just a “trial balloon to gauge interest,” then moved on to his poor internal polling and the suggestions raised by other Beltway insiders for what he should do instead of run.
Political thinkers from Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin to Brookings Institute senior fellow Tom Wright and George Conway, husband of presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, have all suggested the same thing: What if Bloomberg, a billionaire, bought Fox News instead?
“He does have the money,” Brzezinski said.
The arguments from the others essentially boiled down to that same thing.
Rubin wrote on Twitter, “First, buy Fox News. I’m entirely serious. It is a journalistic toxic-waste dump that has misinformed millions of Americans, damaged our civic culture, spread xenophobia and insulated an unfit president from scrutiny.”
Conway said it would “be the greatest thing that he could do for the country.”
If Bloomberg does move forward with an official presidential run, he will be making a late entrance into an already crowded group of Democratic presidential candidates and will likely be a comparable opponent to former vice president Joe Biden.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.