Bloomberg swipes back at Gingrich over accusations he bought mayorship

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg swiped back at Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich Thursday, telling reporters that he was too busy governing to worry about accusations from the former Speaker that he had "bought" his position as mayor.

During a campaign stop in Iowa Wednesday, Gingrich said his campaign differed from well-funded efforts like those of Mayor Bloomberg and some of his Republican opponents.

"We don’t come from a background where we can buy a seat or buy, as Mayor Bloomberg did, buy the mayorship of New York,” Gingrich said. “I mean, if you just look at how much he spent, he just wrote a check and bought it.”

But Bloomberg brushed off the criticism during a press conference in Brooklyn Thursday.

“Did he say something?” Bloomberg joked, according to the New York Post. “Look, my job is to do more events like this, to be able to say that life expectancy [is up], that crime has gone down, deaths by traffic [are down], that schools are improving, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

The paper also quoted a "Bloomberg ally" as calling Gingrich's remarks "the desperate last days in Iowa and he’s ranting.”

Earlier this month, Bloomberg had described Gingrich positively, referring to him as "certainly a smart guy" when he was in New York to visit with reality TV host Donald Trump.

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