Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that the presidential race has been an “outrage” and an “insult” to voters and is considering an independent bid himself.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the billionaire media mogul said he will decide by early March, saying that petition drives to get on the various state ballots would have to be under way by then to have a chance of making the first state deadlines for independent candidates, which fall in April and May.

He told the Financial Times he is “looking at all the options” and “listening to what candidates are saying and what the primary voters appear to be doing.”

The New York Times reported two weeks ago that Mr. Bloomberg was considering the possibility, but that report was based on unnamed associates, not the direct and public words of Mr. Bloomberg, who delivered a withering assessment of how the 2016 presidential race has gone to date.

“I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” he told the Financial Times.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.