Bloomberg office vandalized, campaign blames Sanders’ ‘Trump-like rhetoric’
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Chicago campaign office was vandalized with the words “racist,” sexist,” “GOP” and “oligarch” on Sunday, an act that Bloomberg’s campaign manager blamed on rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “willingness to condone and promote Trump-like rhetoric.”
Several Bloomberg campaign offices around the country have been defaced in the last month, according to the campaign, with multiple instances of defacement using the word “oligarch.” While no suspects have been arrested in these cases, Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said that Sanders and the senator’s supporters had frequently used the word to describe the billionaire businessman and former New York mayor.
Sheekey previously made such claims after a similar “oligarch” vandalism incident in Knoxville, Tennessee last week; the Sanders campaign declined to comment to Reuters about that event.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “oligarch” as a supporter of an oligarchy, which means “government by the few.”
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO