Conservative-leaning news aggregate site The Drudge Report claimed Saturday that 2020 Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg is considering naming failed 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
“Sources close to Bloomberg campaign tell Drudge Report that candidate is considering Hillary Clinton as a running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force,” the site, founded in the late 1990s by Matt Drudge, reported.
In addition, the site noted, Bloomberg would have to move his official resident out of New York, where Clinton lives, because the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits presidential and vice presidential candidates from occupying the same state, due to electoral votes.
Because of that, Drudge said, Bloomberg would consider moving his official residence out of New York to one of his other homes, either in Colorado or Florida.
Officially, Bloomberg’s campaign would not comment, according to the UK’s Daily Mail.
“We are focused on the primary and the debate, not VP speculation,’ Communications Director Jason Schechter said in a statement.
“This comes as two new Democratic primary polls show Bloomberg in the lead in Florida, while Sen. Bernie Sanders tops the field in Texas,” the UK paper reported.
Clinton’s name has surfaced in recent weeks as some have speculated she could jump into the still-crowded 2020 Democratic race for the nomination.
In December, former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon predicted that Clinton would definitely run again this year.
But he also said that she would come into the race to defeat Bloomberg, not join him.
“Hillary Clinton is waiting for her shot to come in and say ‘I’m gonna save the Democratic Party,’ that ‘Michael Bloomberg is a liberal or moderate Republican. He’s not a Democrat.’ She’s gonna come in,” said Bannon.
And in November 2018 shortly after the midterms, two columnists writing in The Wall Street Journal predicted “Hillary 4.0” would run again this year.
“Get ready for Hillary Clinton 4.0. More than 30 years in the making, this new version of Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for president in 2020, will come full circle—back to the universal-health-care-promoting progressive firebrand of 1994,” said the op-ed by Mark Penn and Andrew Stein.
“True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies. She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House.”