Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered the keynote address at the "Summit of Transforming Data into Action" on Tuesday, in which he argued that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are part of the same "phenomenon."
"I’m not trying to knock Donald Trump," he said, "but I do think what you’re seeing in this election, in some cases you argue on the facts, in some cases it becomes a religion — the facts don’t matter at all."
"That phenomenon is what you see with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump -- it’s the same phenomenon,” Bloomberg added. "People are not happy with their government. It has failed them. It hasn’t addressed their needs."
The event was focused less on presidential politics and more on the importance of city leaders in the creation of sustainable environmental policies. "Fifty percent of the people in the world live in cities, going toward 70 percent," he said.
In fact, the stakes in the presidential election are, to Bloomberg's mind, diminishingly low. "The problems come from cities and the solutions come from cities," he said.
"If you think about it, the federal government does next to nothing."
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