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 With eight days to go until Iowa holds the first nominating
contest on the road to the Nov. 8 presidential election, Republican
Senator Marco Rubio basked in the glow of an endorsement from the
Des Moines Register, the state's biggest newspaper.
The weekend disclosure from a source close to the situation that
Bloomberg is laying the groundwork for a run that he could launch
should Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton falter, sent shock
waves rippling through the entire presidential field.
Sanders, a democratic socialist and Vermont senator who is
threatening Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, told ABC's "This
Week" program that Bloomberg's entry would add a second billionaire
to the field. Trump, a real estate mogul, is leading the crowded
Republican field.
Sanders has railed against "millionaires and billionaires" and the
political power they wield throughout his insurgent campaign for the
Democratic nomination.
 "That is not what, to my view, American democracy is supposed to be
about, a contest between billionaires. If that takes place, I am
confident that we will win it," Sanders said.
Many analysts believe a Bloomberg entry into the race could siphon
Democratic votes and be another blow to Clinton, a former secretary
of state and the wife of former President Bill Clinton.
An independent bid would be a heavy lift for Bloomberg. The last
major third-party candidate, Ross Perot, won 18.9 percent of the
vote in 1992, which some observers believe enabled Bill Clinton to
defeat President George H.W. Bush.
Hillary Clinton, who won the Register's endorsement on the
Democratic side on Saturday, said she expected to negate Bloomberg's
rationale for running.
"He's a good friend of mine and I am going to do the best I can that
I get the nomination and we'll go from there," she told NBC's "Meet
the Press."
"The way I read what he said is that if I didn't get the nomination,
he would do it. ... I will relieve him of that," she said.
Bloomberg, 73, a media magnate who has long privately flirted with
the idea of a presidential run, served as mayor of New York from
2002 to 2013. He switched his party affiliation from Republican to
independent in 2007 and has spent millions in recent years on
national campaigns to tighten U.S. gun laws and reform immigration.
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TRUMP 'WOULD LOVE' BLOOMBERG IN RACE
Trump noted that he and Bloomberg had differences on the issues of
gun control and abortion and that he would love to run against him.
Bloomberg favors preserving a woman's right to an abortion.
"I know Michael very well and would love to compete with him. He is
very opposite from me on guns and pro-life. ... I would love to have
Michael get in the race," Trump told CNN.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told the ABC program that Bloomberg
had been a "great mayor," who was unlikely to get into the race
unless Trump and Sanders were the parties' nominees.
“But that’s way off into the future,” Bush said.
Rubio, at a town hall meeting in Marion, Iowa, brought up
Bloomberg's attempts for more gun control. He said he had been asked
in a television interview to comment on Bloomberg's potential
candidacy.
"I said he’s not a candidate. If he gets in, we’ll talk about his
record and his hatred for the Second Amendment," Rubio said,
referring to the constitutional amendment granting Americans the
right to bear arms.
Bloomberg's news service competes with Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by
Paul Simao and Peter Cooney)
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