“The Republican Party ... is the wave of the future. It is the party that can best implement the values that we all hold so dear, and you may rest assured, we ... will make George W. Bush have a second term.”
That’s a quote from former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who, as you may recall, is running for president. As a Democrat.
Bloomberg made the comments in January 2003 at a Republican National Committee meeting, where he praised attendees for selecting New York City as the host location for the party’s 2004 convention.
“New York City is doing well,” he said. “It’s coming back. It represents everything that the Republican party stands for.”
At the time, Bloomberg was rapidly expanding the city’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which disproportionately affected Black and Latino people. (A federal judge deemed it unconstitutional in 2013.)
C-SPAN footage of the event shows former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gamely clapping along as Bloomberg touts New York’s history and role in helping to nominate Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention.
Bloomberg was a Republican in 2003, having registered with the party to run for mayor in 2001. He served two terms as a Republican before becoming an independent in 2007, ahead of his third mayoral bid.
Though he spoke at the 2016 Democratic convention in favor of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Bloomberg did not re-register as a Democrat until 2018.