Democrats who believed Mike Bloomberg would save them this cycle by spending hundreds of millions to prop up a broke party infrastructure, whether he won the nomination or not, must be extremely disappointed right now.

NEW: @MikeBloomberg is scrapping his plan to fund an independent expenditure campaign to support the Democratic nominee (he's endorsed @JoeBiden).



Instead, he's laying off his staff & transferring $18mil to the DNC.



Story tk, w/ @aseitzwald @JoshNBCNews — Maura Barrett (@MauraBarrettNBC) March 20, 2020

In transferring $18 million dollars of his own money (reminder he didn’t take any donations) he is funneling almost $17.7 million more than the legal limit to the DNC, a clear violation of the spirit of campaign finance law.

By this logic, any rich person could form a political committee, put unlimited money there, drop out and then transfer unlimited sums to a political party?https://t.co/GcBcTKCVSZ pic.twitter.com/HsyYEyGKev — Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 20, 2020

By this logic, any rich person could form a political committee, put unlimited money there, drop out and then transfer unlimited sums to a political party?https://t.co/GcBcTKCVSZ pic.twitter.com/HsyYEyGKev — Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 20, 2020

Despite the payoff from Bloomberg, to put that amount in perspective, that’s significantly less than the RNC raises in a single month. Case in point, in February, the RNC raised $26.2 million.

And to everyone who thought his multi hundred million dollar IE would be a game changer and that he would keep employing his campaign staff, turns out it was all a lie.

Here's what a Democratic strategist tells me of Bloomberg's about-face:

“It’s clear this was never about beating Trump and always about one thing: Mike Bloomberg... His infrastructure is unparalleled and could still do incredible things. Instead he’s taking his ball & going home" — Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) March 20, 2020

Bottom Line: Michael Bloomberg bought off the DNC to get on the debate stage, and all the DNC got for it was a broken promise from him to spend billions on 2020. Instead, the DNC got a onetime payment that not only violates the spirit of campaign finance laws, it’s less than the amount the RNC raises a month.

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