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Billionaire reality TV star Mark Cuban played the president in “Sharknado 3,” which naturally qualifies him to handicap the 2016 presidential field — and encourage fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg to enter the race for the White House.
In an interview with WABC Radio, Cuban said he would like to see a Bloomberg candidacy — describing the former mayor of New York City as progressive on social issues, such as gun control, yet fiscally conservative.
“The question is going to be, is he too meek? And when I say meek, I mean just force of voice. You know, can he shout loud enough?” said Cuban, who knows a thing or two about being vocal.
Cuban said Bloomberg is not exactly timid in the business world, where his personal net worth is pegged at $49 billion. But as a presidential candidate, he would need to be forceful to be heard above the other presidential hopefuls.
“The way things are running right now, being loud unfortunately means something, and it takes a force of voice to stand out, particularly on the Republican side,” Cuban said. “So, if you get into a race where he’s the independent candidate — and let’s just say it’s Hillary on the Democratic side — it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be boisterous. And I don’t know how he’d fit, and even more importantly, I don’t know how he’ll be perceived.”
This isn’t the first time Cuban has encouraged a Bloomberg candidacy. As he surveyed the 2008 Republican and Democratic contenders, he called on a wealthy candidate to enter the contest — someone who would know how to deliver on campaign promises.
“Are you listening, Mayor Bloomberg? For less than the cost of opening a tent-pole movie, you can change the status quo,” Cuban wrote on his Blog Maverick weblog. “I’m not saying that I’m going to vote for you yet. As I said above, the devil is in the details. But, I’m betting that unlike the current choices, you recognize the difference between politics and results.”
The founder of a media company that bears his name, Bloomberg has switched parties — running for mayor of New York in 2001 as a Republican, then switching to independent. It’s unclear whether a third-party candidacy would be more damaging to the GOP or the Democrats.
Bloomberg clearly has the resources to finance his own campaign — the New York Times reported he has told friends and allies he would be willing to commit $1 billion of his fortune in a bid for the White House. But RealClearPolitics points out he may be running out of time, given the complexity of getting on the ballot as an independent in all 50 states.
Radio host Rita Cosby asked Cuban to offer his assessment of the rest of the presidential field, and Cuban obliged in his typically provocative manner.
Among the Republican presidential hopefuls, Cuban described Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as “Joe McCarthy reincarnate,” dismissed real estate mogul Donald Trump’s candidacy as a “long shot” and called Ohio Gov. John Kasich “the adult in the room.”
Cuban mounted a surprising defense of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal server for her U.S. State Department emails, and said the guy he’d most like to sit down with is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
You can listen to Cuban’s full interview on “The Rita Cosby Show” here.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
