Updated Mar 2, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Bloomberg on claims of sexist comments: "I'm sorry if somebody was hurt"

Mike Bloomberg speaks during a Feb. 29 dinner in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg apologized during a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast Sunday "if somebody was hurt" by language he's used in the past.

Details: CBS' Scott Pelley pressed the former New York City mayor on passages from a "tongue-in-cheek" 1990 booklet by his employees, titled "The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg," which contained crude comments purportedly said by him.

  • Bloomberg said he didn't write the booklet and didn't think he'd ever seen it, but he did remember it, though he couldn't recall the quotes cited by Pelley.
  • "I can tell you that years ago on the trading room floors, things were different," Bloomberg said. "I apologize for that. I'm sorry if somebody was hurt. ... I can't go rewrite history. I can only tell you now it's a different world."

What else he's saying: In the wide-ranging interview, Bloomberg again apologized for implementing an aggressive stop-and-frisk policing policy while mayor of New York, which disproportionately targeted African American and Latino people, admitting to Pelley that it had been a "mistake."

  • Bloomberg also said that he entered the 2020 race because President Trump would "eat" the other Democratic presidential candidates "for lunch."
  • And even though former Vice President Joe Biden won the South Carolina Democratic primary, Bloomberg said Sen. Bernie Sanders is the candidate to beat.
  • But he added, "The middle of the road doesn't want extremism. They want evolution rather than revolution. And if Bernie Sanders is the candidate, Donald Trump will win."

Flashback: Sanders told "60 Minutes" last month after Bloomberg's lackluster performance at the Nevada Democratic presidential debate, "If that's what happened in a Democratic debate, you know, I think it's quite likely that Trump will chew him up and spit him out."

Go deeper: Bloomberg's baggage, and barrage

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

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