Michael Bloomberg got a tad defensive this morning when asked about a report claiming he called Hillary Clinton and encouraged her to run for mayor in 2013, despite his long-assumed allegiance to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “Why do you think I encouraged Hillary Clinton to run for mayor?” Bloomberg said, annoyed, according to Capital New York. (Answer: because the New York Times told us so, citing three separate sources.) “I mean, did you hear me say that?” he added, thereby disqualifying any and all newspaper journalism, forever and always. “I don’t know who’s gonna run,” Bloomberg continued later. “But if you want to start a fight between me and Chris Quinn, you’re not gonna do it. It’s cheap, lousy journalism.” Asked by the Times about the call, Quinn replied, “Really?” so Bloomberg should probably just say he’s sorry.
