Mike Bloomberg, in newly surfaced 2015 remarks, compares Putin's attack on Ukraine to US annexing California: "What would America do if we had a continuous country and a lot of people in that country wanted to be Americans. Does California ring a bell? We just went and took it."
Bloomberg then compares Russian aggression to U.S. military bases: "I'm not suggesting Putin's doing a good thing or it should be allowed. But we did this. That was 200 years ago, but we did it. And you want a warm water port? Guantanamo Bay ring a bell? We kept that."
Bloomberg believes NATO expansion gave Putin justification for aggression: "One of the reasons that Putin has reacted the way he did is there was a movement to have NATO be right along the Russian border... so they know this meant that the world was out to get them."
More Bloomberg on foreign policy: "With the whole crazy Islamic world with all of its chaos that's going on, we'll never be able to stop Iran from being a nuclear power. To do it, if we did, you have to have Russia as an ally in these things."
“Bloomberg’s misunderstanding of history, false equivalence and sympathy for Putin’s perspective is troubling as he now vies to be the leader of the free world.“ washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
