Now that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is no longer in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bloomberg News —the news outlet he co-founded — said it would return to “normal coverage of the election.”
In light of that decision, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign announced on Friday that it would begin credentialing reporters from Bloomberg News again.
Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for the campaign, expressed skepticism that Bloomberg will give Democrats and Republicans “equal treatment” in coverage. Still, he said, “for now,” Bloomberg reporters will be credentialed for campaign events.
“Bloomberg News says it’s returning to equal treatment of all candidates – D & R – now that Mike Bloomberg is out of the race. They say they WILL report on his political spending. We’ll see. But for now, the Trump campaign will again credential their reporters for events.”
Bloomberg News says it’s returning to equal treatment of all candidates – D & R – now that Mike Bloomberg is out of the race.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) March 6, 2020
They say they WILL report on his political spending.
We’ll see.
But for now the Trump campaign will again credential their reporters for events.
Once Bloomberg suspended his campaign, Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait said that his organization would “follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump.”
Shortly after Michael Bloomberg announced his presidential campaign, Micklethwait said that the outlet would “continue our tradition of not investigating Mike.”
“We will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries. We cannot treat Mike’s Democratic competitors differently from him,” he added.
However, Micklethwait said that Bloomberg reporters would continue to “investigate the Trump administration as the government of the day.”
After Micklethwait shared the decision not to investigate Democratic candidates, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale announced that the campaign would not credential Bloomberg reporters.
“Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign event,” Parscale said.