Bloomberg thinks the State Department is Bloomberg blitzes Wolf

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attacked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for the “tone” of his questions during his interview on Wednesday from Jerusalem.

Blitzer interviewed Bloomberg alongside Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, after the former mayor flew to the city despite the Federal Aviation Administration canceling flights to and from Israel for safety reasons. What began as a discussion about the flight ban quickly became heated.


“I think the State Department is just overreacting in typical bureaucratic fashion,” Bloomberg said.

“[Are there] Political reasons for that?” Blitzer asked.

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“Why would you think that … don’t be ridiculous,” Bloomberg retorted. “It’s an outrage for you to accuse one of our agencies.”

Blitzer interrupted and explained that his question was not meant to be accusatory.

“By asking the question you’re implying that our government does things for political reasons, and maybe once in a while they do, but it’s your job to prove it,” Bloomberg said. “Just the allegation against our government, I personally take as an offense.”

Wolf replied, “I’m just asking if you thought there was some political motive behind the travel advisory or the FAA, because a lot of people in Israel do.”

“I don’t know, you don’t know and the other people don’t know, but just the tone of the question is trying to create dissension, it’s insulting to America,” Bloomberg said.

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Tensions rose during other points in the interview. As Blitzer began reading an FAA statement Bloomberg interrupted, saying “I didn’t write the statement. I don’t know what they said and you can’t put words in my mouth.”

“We didn’t let the journalist scare everybody away [after 9/11],” Bloomberg said at one point in the interview. “All of those people, the talking heads, who kept saying it was the end of the world for New York and they couldn’t be more wrong.”

At the end of the interview Blitzer shook hands with Barkat, who asked if the CNN host felt secure in Jerusalem.

“I feel very secure,” Blitzer said.

“And you want to make sure that’s on television?” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg also interviewed with Fox News’ on Wednesday. During this interview, host Neil Cavuto also touched on potential political motivations for the flight freeze, asking, “You know, mayor, I’ve talked to a number of Israelis on the phone who have been saying that they wonder if this is political payback and that maybe we were punishing Israel knowing that this wouldn’t hurt Hamas, it would hurt Israel in terms of business, tourism and the rest. What do you make of it.”

“I always try to think of government, particularly American government — I’m so proud of America, I’ve always been,” Bloomberg said. “We don’t do everything perfectly, and there are some bad people and people sometimes do stupid things or bad things but the bottom line is American policy isn’t just set by politics. Every now and then it impacts you in a minor way, but I think the FAA is not a politically conscious organization.”