Michael Bloomberg: ‘Nobody Asked Me’ About Stop and Frisk ‘Until I Started Running for President’

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has claimed that nobody brought up Stop and Frisk with him until he announced he was running for president. The Democratic presidential candidate made the claim to CBS’ Gayle King on Friday.

“Well, the mark of an intelligent, competent person is when they make a mistake, they have the guts to stand up and say ‘I made a mistake, I’m sorry,'” Bloomberg said, reiterating the apology he already made for the policy.

However, King pressed him on the timing of his apology. Bloomberg frequently defended the policy while he was mayor but he made the extraordinary claim that that didn’t happen.

“Nobody asked me about it until I started running for president. Come on,” Bloomberg said.

This is plainly untrue. The policy was controversial and extremely unpopular with certain groups, especially New York’s African American community. But Bloomberg continued.

“We were overzealous at the time to do it. Our intent was to do anything we could to stop the carnage, the murder rate,” he said.

“What was surprising is when we stopped doing a little bit, we thought crime would go up. It didn’t, it went. Could have, would have, should have, in looking back, I made a mistake. I’m sorry, I apologize.”

Watch the video above, via CBS.