On his first visit to California as a Democratic candidate for president, Michael Bloomberg picked up a key endorsement – and danced around his legacy of stop-and-frisk.

The former New York mayor made his case to voters in the city of Stockton on Wednesday and announced the endorsement of the Stockton mayor, Michael Tubbs – a rising star in the Democratic party and the city’s first African American mayor.

Bloomberg jumped in the Democratic race late last month. Bypassing four early voting states in the primary season calendar, he is counting on success in Super Tuesday states such as California to remain a viable contender. In convincing California voters, the billionaire businessman has a long road ahead – 85% have either a negative opinion of him or no opinion at all. He has faced criticism for using his fortune to fund his presidential campaign and has drawn condemnation for controversial law enforcement tactics when he was mayor, including stop-and-frisk.

As he stood next to Tubbs in a Stockton coffee shop on Wednesday, Bloomberg apologized – twice – for stop-and-frisk, which led to wide-scale racial profiling by police officers.

He didn’t acknowledge why the policy was harmful, or who it harmed, but instead focused on the motivations behind it.

“The policy we had I apologize for, because in the end, it turned out we could have done something different,” Bloomberg said. “But people want results. I don’t think there’s anybody in California that doesn’t think the objective of bringing down the murder rate, particularly in poor communities, isn’t a good idea.”

Bloomberg further touted his 12-year record as New York mayor. “There’s nothing we did that isn’t transferrable to the rest of the country,” he argued.

And he found a surprising defender in Tubbs, Stockton’s youngest-ever mayor, a black man whose father is incarcerated. “Issues about criminal justice are deeply personal for me,” Tubbs said.

Tubbs, who previously supported Senator Kamala Harris, said most people today recognized that stop-and-frisk was bad policy. But, he noted, every candidate in the race has “an issue with criminal justice”.

“You have folks that wrote the ’94 crime bill, which created mass incarceration, you have folks that voted for the ’94 crime bill, you have folks who supported Ronald Reagan,” he said. “There’s not a candidate in 2019 who has a criminal justice record that supports where we are today. But I think the sign of a good leader is one who apologizes, and not just apologizes in a room where everyone agrees. This man went to a black church in Brooklyn with many parishioners who were probably stopped and frisked and had to look them in the eye and say, ‘I apologize. I was wrong. I’m sorry.’”

Tubbs argued that Democratic voters should look forward to the future and defeating Donald Trump. “What we have right now is someone who is stopping and frisking and putting kids in cages,” Tubbs added. “I’m part of this campaign because we will put forth criminal justice policies that acknowledge past harms but look toward the future in how we create a more just and inclusive criminal justice system that keeps us all safe, and also repairs some of the wrongs that have been committed by many folks over many years in this country.”

Michael Bloomberg under fire for calling Cory Booker 'well spoken' Read more

Critics of Tubbs’ endorsement have been vocal, questioning the believability of the billionaire former leader of one of the richest cities in the world empathizing with the mayor of a formally bankrupt city with a poverty rate that tops 22%. (A Sacramento Bee reporter asked at the news conference if Bloomberg knew the cost of a gallon of milk – he did.) Tubbs has gained national attention for experimenting with a variety of policies aimed at boosting economic opportunity, including a pilot program for universal basic income and guaranteeing scholarships to most of the city’s high school graduates. Supporters of the Democratic candidate Andrew Yang, another proponent of universal basic income, have been particularly outspoken against Tubbs’ endorsement of Bloomberg.

In Stockton, Bloomberg pledged to launch a “war on poverty”, sat with community members to discuss housing and unveiled proposals for housing affordability and raising the minimum wage.

“As president, my job will be to move all Americans ahead, and that includes committing our country to new and innovative ways to combat poverty,” Bloomberg said.

Policies like those Bloomberg proposed on Wednesday “are important for people of color, for middle- and low-income America”, said Bobby Bivens, president of the NAACP Stockton chapter.

Bivens said he wished Bloomberg had spoken more about civil rights issues and “the discriminatory practices of the existing administration” but overall was satisfied with the visit.

As for Bloomberg’s legacy on stop-and-frisk: “Ain’t nothing we can do about it.”

“We in Stockton just had a young man beaten brutally by the local law enforcement, by the sheriff’s office,” Bivens said. “So from a NAACP perspective, we’re in that. But at the same time, [Bloomberg] admitted that he blew it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report