Clinton says she will ‘relieve’ Bloomberg of the need to run for US presidency

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said she’ll save former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg the trouble of deciding whether to jump into the 2016 race by winning her party’s nomination.

“The way I read what he said is, if I don’t get the nomination, he might consider it,” Clinton said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Well, I’m going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn’t have to.”

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Bloomberg is uncomfortable with the rise of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s principal Democratic challenger, and of the prospect of real-estate mogul Donald Trump being the Republican nominee. The 73-year-old billionaire has asked advisers to draw up plans for a potential independent campaign, the newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

Clinton described Bloomberg as “a good friend.” The former first lady and US senator from New York is in a tight battle with Sanders going into the first nominating contests of 2016.

Sanders said Bloomberg’s entry into the race would help make his point about the outsized influence of wealth in the US political process.

“If Donald Trump wins and Mr Bloomberg gets in, you’re going to have two multibillionaires running for president of the United States against me,” Sanders said in a separate interview on Meet the Press.