Michael Bloomberg’s politics and using prisoners to make phone calls

OPINION:

It’s always shocking to find out how evil dictators and third world countries treat their prisoners. They dehumanize them by taking away all of their rights; some make them day laborers; some even make them make political cold calls for them — wait, I’m sorry — the third one about political cold calling happened here, in America, and it was done by a Democratic candidate for president. 

According to The Intercept, billionaire and former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, through a third-party vendor, “contracted New Jersey-based call center company ProCom, which runs call centers in New Jersey and Oklahoma. Two of the call centers in Oklahoma are operated out of state prisons. In at least one of the two prisons, incarcerated people were contracted to make calls on behalf of the Bloomberg campaign.”

It turns out that the anti-Trump candidate who claims to be for the people was using what many would consider modern day slaves — our imprisoned make phone calls on behalf of his campaign. Even richer, it was a women’s prison that was making the calls for the candidate.

That’s right, Michael Bloomberg, a member of the Democratic Party that constantly lectures Americans that they are the party who stand for women’s rights literally used imprisoned women to make political phone calls for them. With all the hypocrisy in our political system today and what we have come to expect from candidate and campaign behavior even this seems far beyond the pale.

The Bloomberg campaign responded to this discovery with all the faux-dramatic shock and awe that one would imagine. When The Intercept reached out to them, they said the following, “We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had. We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question.” The campaign later said it had ended the practice. 

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t imagine any modern campaign, especially one as small as Bloomberg 2020 not knowing who was employed at their contracted call centers — especially if they’re using prison labor.

The campaign’s statement sends one of two clear messages to Americans who would even remotely consider voting for Mr. Bloomberg. Either: A) Your small campaign is so disorganized that you ignored violating what many would consider a moral code by using prisoners to make phone calls for you — which ultimately tells Americans that you don’t have the ability to lead and manage the country; or B) You knew exactly what you were doing and you’re lying.  

There’s no in between option, it’s one or the other — and it’s time to drop out of the race.

Mr. Bloomberg has been a non-starter this entire election cycle. Where many Democrats had hoped that his moderate views and money would help propel him to the top of the polls, this candidate has been a complete flop who hasn’t even made a dent in the polling that has consistently been led by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. 

This critical error and potential human rights violation (depending on which angle you look at it from) should spell the end of any candidate, but who knows what the Democrats’ electorate is willing to tolerate in this 2020 cycle.

Kamala Harris, a candidate with similar behavior in her career recently dropped out of the race. Before she was a senator, Ms. Harris was known for over-prosecuting small crimes and figuring out ways to keep California prisoners incarcerated so that the state had cheap labor. As it turns out, Democratic voters didn’t want that type of leadership in the White House — so I would only imagine that they would finally put the kibosh on Bloomberg 2020.

I can only imagine how the journalist at The Intercept found out that a women’s prison was being used to make phone calls for the Bloomberg campaign. Perhaps the inmates slipped coded statements into their phone calls like Chinese prisoners put notes into cards and other things they are forced to create and send around the world. 

Perhaps after reading the script, “This call is made on behalf of the Bloomberg 2020 campaign” they whispered quickly into the phone, “‘I’m in jail. Please help me. I’m being forced to do this.’”

The only question that remains is how the left’s media friends will report this story. Will they do so with the level of seriousness that it should be given, or will it simply fade into the background because his business employs so many journalists and he himself is a favorite of the moderate Democrats?

One thing’s for certain — if his name was Donald Trump, this would be headline news for weeks on every major news channel and paper — and this would be heralded as the end of his candidacy.

• Tim Young is a political comedian and author of “I Hate Democrats/I Hate Republicans” (Post Hill Press). He is co-host of The Washington Times podcast “The Right Opinion.”