Mike Bloomberg ends campaign for the White House and endorses Biden

New York billionaire and former mayor Mike Bloomberg gave up on Wednesday to continue his pre-candidacy for the Democratic nomination for this year's United States presidential election after his disastrous results on Super Tuesday , the party's previews. in 14 American states and a territory. In making his decision official, Bloomberg announced his support for former President Joe Biden.

“Three months ago, I entered this presidential race to defeat Donald Trump . Today I leave it for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump, ”said Bloomberg in a statement. “It is clear to me that, by staying, it would make this objective more difficult”, he added.

In the previews for Tuesday 3, Bloomberg won in only the territory of American Samoa and won 12 delegates for the Democratic Party Convention, scheduled for July. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders have come out as big winners  by taking the vast majority of delegates from the 14 states.

In the statement, the Communications tycoon said that, despite leaving the electoral race, he would not give up on the most important political struggle of his life. "I always believed that to defeat Trump it starts with uniting around the candidate with the best chance of doing so (...) And it is clear that this candidate is my friend and great American Joe Biden," he said.

Bloomberg put his own money into his election campaign and broke former President Barack Obama's record for the most money invested in the United States elections. In total, there were 500 million dollars in purchases of advertising space on television, radio and the internet. In American Samoa, however, the billionaire spent about $ 1,600 on Facebook ads.

His electoral strategy, however, proved to be flawed. Bloomberg had announced his run for the Democratic nomination only in November, when all the contestants were already in place, and decided to dodge the party's first four preliminaries to bet on a substantial Super Tuesday result. In his first and only participation in a pre-candidate debate in Las Vegas on February 19, the tycoon was hesitant in the face of attacks by his competitors, especially Senator Elizabeth Warren , on his liabilities as a businessman and politician.