Resurfaced: Bloomberg’s past comments compare civil liberties, teachers’ union to NRA

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has not been shy about his mission to take on the National Rifle Association, but remarks he made in 2013 comparing the organization to two Democratic-aligned groups may complicate some of his key liberal relationships.

Obtained by Politico, a video recording of then-mayor Bloomberg shows him comparing a local faction of the American Civil Liberties Union to the NRA.

“We don’t need extremists on the left or the right running our police department, whether it’s the NRA or the NYCLU [New York Civil Liberties Union].”

The comparison was made in defense of New York City’s contentious stop-and-frisk policy, which Bloomberg proceeded to deny as being racially biased in the rest of the video clip. (Side story: Two years later, Bloomberg’s comments in 2015 did, however, describe stop-and-frisk in racial terms.)

In 2007 and 2013, Bloomberg compared New York City’s teachers’ union to the NRA. “The NRA’s another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.”

Bloomberg will take the stage tomorrow in Las Vegas for his first Democratic presidential debate.