Left-wing activist and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has urged former First Lady Michelle Obama to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, describing her as a “street fighter” who could “crush” President Donald Trump.

“Let’s get out the Democratic base of young people, women, and people of color.” Moore said in a post-Democratic debate interview on MSNBC on Wednesday. “The worst thing to do is to moderate, to go to the center, and to think that’s how we’re going to win. This is how we’re going to lose.”

“And it will happen again if we don’t run the right candidate,” the Oscar-winner continued. “A beloved American who’s not an inside-the-beltway politician type person, but somebody who’s going to be a street fighter and fight for that 70 percent majority that’s going to take us back into the White House.”

When pressed on who that candidate could be, Moore was clear about who he thinks is best placed to win back the White House in 2020.

“Who can crush Trump? Who is the street fighter? We saw it in Bernie last night. Who is the street fighter that can crush Trump?” he said. “And frankly, I think there’s a person that could do this, if the election were held today, there is one person that would crush Trump. And she hasn’t announced yet. And her last name rhymes with Obama.”

“In fact, it is Obama. Michelle Obama. Everybody watching this right now knows she is a beloved American and she would go in there and she would beat him,” Moore said. “She would beat him in the debates, he wouldn’t be able to bully her, he wouldn’t be able to nickname her and she is beloved.”

Michelle Obama has previously stated that she is not planning a run for the presidency anytime soon, and would prefer to spend her time inspiring young female leaders of the future. However, she recently hinted at a future run when she said of her husband’s presidency that “if a black guy can do it, anybody can.”

Despite currently being a supporter of socialist Bernie Sanders, Moore has long sounded the drum about the need for an unconventional yet “beloved” candidate to run for the presidency such as Michelle Obama. Other names he has put forward have included Tom Hanks, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, LeBron James, Meryl Streep, and Oprah Winfrey.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected].

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday pushed back against calls to impose a blanket ban on Chinese telecoms equipment vendor Huawei, which would prevent it from providing gear for Germany’s 5G networks.

“There are two things I don’t believe in. First, to discuss these very sensitive security questions publicly, and second, to exclude a company simply because it’s from a certain country,” Merkel told an audience in Berlin.

“The government has said our approach is not to simply exclude one company or one actor, but rather we have requirements of the competitors for this 5G technology,” she said.

Germany is weighing strong requirements and limits for Chinese telecoms equipment vendor Huawei in the country, and its regulators recently released stricter draft requirements for operators and vendors on cybersecurity. But the government has dismissed calls for blanket bans on Huawei and ZTE.

Calling China a “systemic” competitor, Merkel said “the answer can’t be that we fight those who are economically strong. We must stand up for fair, reciprocal rules and not give up on multilateralism,” adding that a European approach to the issue would be “desirable.”

European leaders have an EU-China summit scheduled early April to debate trade relations, and the issue of whether Europe would impose restrictions on Chinese telecoms equipment vendors Huawei and ZTE is high on the agenda.

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Music industry executives are set to launch a concert campaign consisting of 46 concerts in key swing states to “help launch the Democratic presidential nominee into the White House using the inspirational power of music.”

Former music manager Kyle Frenette launched the partisan campaign – dubbed “46 for 46” – to “help elect the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee by working to increase civic engagement through music and pop culture.” Billboard advertises the effort as a “strategically planned series” featuring “unique concerts” in cities within the most crucial swing states. It aims to attract musicians who were either from or live in those specific states, and it has one messaging goal: Vote for anyone but President Trump.

46for46.org

The campaign, paid for by bpoliticalPAC, has already attracted artists such as Nathaniel Rateliff, Lissie, Bon Iver, Dashboard Confessional, Sylvan Esso, and Patty Griffin. The campaign is the brainchild of “longtime artist managers” Kyle Frenette and Christopher Moon, who decided to use their connections to attempt to defeat Trump in 2020.

According to Billboard:

Frenette worked on a Rock the Vote campaign during the 2018 midterms and organized a concert rally for Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). It inspired him to move his efforts to a larger scale.

“The concert sold out and we raised the most money in a single evening [of Tammy’s] entire political career,” Frenette said, according to Billboard. “And we didn’t even try. It was astounding.”

The “46 for 46” events hope to feature activist speakers, politicians, and candidates, although organizers want to ensure that they provide enough “diversity.”

“I’m a white guy, my partner’s a white guy,” Frenette said. “We need to diversify here.”

“Honestly, we’ve got 46 concerts to put on, and so we’re not gonna pick and choose,” he added. “If a prominent artist from California would really like to play California, then great, that’s awesome. … We’re not gonna be picky, so long as we hit those crucial swing states.”

The campaign goes beyond the concerts, with organizers planning to ask attendees to “Pledge 46,” which means “chatting with 46 people in their social circle about the Democratic nominee, donating money to the party or the candidate’s campaign ($4, $6 or $46 are the suggested amounts), or volunteering 46 hours of their time to canvassing, phone banking and other get out the vote efforts,” according to Billboard.

“The pledge additionally includes a commitment to keep working for progressive Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in future elections,” Billboard added.

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KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo have pinned their hopes on the recently held presidential election to pave the way for renewing visa access to the EU.

On Thursday, Congo’s electoral commission CENI announced opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi as winner of the presidential poll held on December 30, making way for the country’s first uncontested transfer of power in its nearly 60 years of independence.

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But both the Catholic Church and another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu, have contested those results, setting up an uneasy aftermath to the vote. Reuters reported that Fayulu will lode an election fraud complaint Saturday to formerly contest the result, saying he in fact won 60 percent of votes.

Whether the results stand or not will have a significant impact on an institution that was shut down by the Congolese government in January last year. La Maison Schengen in Kinshasa helped Congolese citizens travel to 18 countries in the EU by issuing visas for the Schengen area, but the government closed it in retaliation to European sanctions against senior Congolese officials. The action lead to scores of people in the African country being denied visas.

The measure, which was in retaliation against EU sanctions in 2016 and 2017 over violent crackdowns on protesters and repeated delays to the election, has had most impact on Congolese citizens, with a long list of researchers, students, medical patients and others unable to travel to the EU.

Dieudonné Molamba, a 58-year-old doctor who travels to the EU to attend academic conferences and pursue his research on prostate cancer, has had his visits curtailed as a result of the shutdown. His visa giving access to the Schengen area ran out in November.

“The shutting down of the Maison Schengen brings about serious consequences, particularly in the area of research and in general for those who work in universities. I am not the only one. There are many who have been affected by this,” Molamba said.

“The world today is a spider web. No country in the world can pretend to evolve alone.”

Molamba said he had tried to gain access to a France-only visa via the French Embassies in Democratic Republic of Congo and Brazzaville, the capital of the former French colony Republic of the Congo. He also said he had encountered numerous medical patients in recent months wanting to go to the EU for medical treatment who had hit a brick wall.

Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, one of Congo’s incumbent President Joseph Kabila’s top advisers, told POLITICO in an interview that the Maison Schengen would not be opened again “in its current form.”

“We don’t think it’s in the interests of anyone to reopen the Maison Schengen as it has worked up until now. Its reopening will be a subject of intense negotiation between the European Union and us.,” he said. “The European Union has in a cavalier way sanctioned our officials, which we find is extremely unfriendly and irresponsible.”

Kikaya said that Congolese citizens, if they want to go to Europe, should contact national EU Embassies in order to have a visa. “If someone needs to go in three different countries [inside the EU] one must go to three embassies.”

The hope among Congolese who wish to obtain travel permits for the EU is that the position changes with the new government. A spokesperson for Tshisekedi did not respond to repeated calls.

An EU spokesperson declined to comment but referred to a statement released last year saying the decision to suspend the activities of the Maison Schengen risks “undermining the collective effort on behalf of the Congolese people.”

You know what they say, what happens in Las Vegas … will be broadcast and live-streamed around the world. Democrats will hold their ninth presidential primary debate Wednesday and this time the stage will have a fresh face.

Billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, the former three-term mayor of New York City, qualified for his first debate after he climbed in polls and the Democratic National Committee decided to drop its grassroots fundraising threshold.

That gives the five other candidates who made the stage a chance to take a swing at him before the Nevada caucuses Saturday and, more critically, ahead of Super Tuesday on March 3. Bloomberg, who made a late entry into the race, is counting on a strong showing on that day of coast-to-coast balloting after skipping the early contests, including Nevada.

Here’s what you need to know about Wednesday’s debate:

What time is the debate?

It will begin at 6 p.m. Pacific time and last two hours. NBC News, MSNBC and the Nevada Independent are hosting the debate at the Paris Theater in Las Vegas. It will be moderated by NBC News’ Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson, Noticias Telemundo’s Vanessa Hauc and the Nevada Independent’s Jon Ralston.

How do I watch it?

The debate will air on NBC and MSNBC, as well as stream on their websites and Facebook pages. Viewers can also watch via the NBC News apps for mobile and platforms such as Apple TV and Roku. The Nevada Independent will broadcast the debate online. It will air in Spanish on Universo and the Noticias Telemundo website, mobile app and Facebook page.

Who made the debate?

Former Vice President Joe Biden; Bloomberg; former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have qualified.

There were three ways to qualify for this debate: reach 10% in four polls (either national polls or state-wide polls in South Carolina or Nevada) between Jan. 15 and Feb. 18; reach 12% in two state-wide polls in South Carolina or Nevada during that same time frame; or gain at least one national delegate in Iowa or New Hampshire.

Bloomberg? That’s new

Yep! Last month the DNC dropped its debate qualification requirement on grassroots fundraising. The change would allow voters to watch the surging Bloomberg, who has vowed not to take any campaign contributions, debate his rivals.

Why was the rule change controversial?

Candidates have been calling on the DNC to loosen the debate requirements for months. Ahead of the Dec. 19 debate in Los Angeles, nine Democratic candidates wrote to DNC chair Tom Perez asking that they be required to meet either the fundraising or polling thresholds, but not both. The candidates argued at the time that rule change would increase the diversity on the debate stage.

The DNC refused. Then, after the party modified the debate requirements last month, some accused the DNC of making the change for the sole benefit of Bloomberg.

“I guess if you’re worth $60 billion, you can change the rules,” Sanders said in a CBS interview. “I think that is very, very unfortunate.”

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, the remaining candidate of color in the race, did not qualify for the Las Vegas debate. Neither did billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer.

Now the candidates get to target Bloomberg

Yes. But Bloomberg will also get the national stage to defend his record, including past comments advocating for New York City’s “stop and frisk” policing policy that disproportionately targeted Latino and black men, and blaming the end of redlining — a discriminatory policy that prevented minorities from getting mortgages — for triggering the 2008 financial crisis.

Biden and others have signaled they intend to bring up those issues. So Bloomberg, who has since disavowed those statements, will no doubt be prepared to respond.

What topics will likely come up?

Nevada, where Latinos and Asian Americans make up a significant portion of the electorate, is the first diverse state on the primary calendar, as well as the first Western state, and some questions may reflect that shift. Moderators could ask the candidates about their immigration platforms and how they’d push them through Congress. Climate change, one of the top concerns for Democrats across the country, is another potential issue, along with healthcare.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 226, a powerful force in Nevada politics, has been critical of the “Medicare for all” plan advocated by Sanders and Warren, fearing it would undermine the gold-plated healthcare benefits its 60,000 members enjoy.

What else is at stake Wednesday night?

The Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary could be the one-two punch that knocks a few candidates out of the race. As Klobuchar demonstrated earlier this month, a stellar debate performance and the buzz that follows can give a candidate a meaningful boost.

Biden, after coming in fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire, is betting that his support with minority voters will greatly improve his performance. Buttigieg and Klobuchar, who have low support with minorities, need to prove that they can do well in a state that isn’t overwhelmingly white. Warren is attempting to stop her campaign’s downward slide, and Sanders is hoping his strong backing with Latino voters will establish him as the party’s clear-cut front-runner.

All are hoping to pick up as much momentum as possible before Super Tuesday. Fourteen states will hold primaries March 3, awarding a sizable chunk of the 1,991 pledged delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

This is it, right? No more debates?

Sure, not until next week! Democrats will debate again in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25 ahead of the state’s Feb. 29 primary. This will be the third and final debate held in February.

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Bernie Sanders has opened a wide lead in California’s Democratic presidential primary, and four rivals are virtually tied for a distant second place, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found Sanders favored by 32% of likely voters in the March 3 primary, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden, 14%, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 13%, and two former mayors, Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., both at 12%.

The findings were particularly grim for Biden and Warren; each dropped by 10 percentage points from their standings in the institute’s poll in January. Sanders has been especially successful at consolidating support among Latinos and voters under 45 years old; a majority of both groups favored the Vermont senator, the poll found.

“As the campaign moves to larger and more diverse states, Sanders’ support among Latinos and younger voters is noteworthy,” said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive of the public policy institute.

California is the biggest of 14 states holding primaries on Super Tuesday. At stake in California are 415 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Milwaukee. It takes 1,991 delegates to win the party’s presidential nomination.

Under party rules, candidates must win at least 15% of the vote statewide or in a congressional district to capture any of California’s delegates. The survey’s margin of sampling error was 5.7%. It was conducted Feb. 7 to 17.

Trailing far behind were Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 5% and San Francisco hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who was at just 3% despite spending nearly $26 million from his personal fortune on television and radio ads in the state, according to Advertising Analytics, a media tracking firm.

The poll also confirmed the trend of Bloomberg rising into the top tier of the field nationally. He has poured more than $300 million of his own money into advertising across the country. His improved poll ratings have qualified him to participate in the Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

A national survey released Tuesday by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist found Bloomberg supported by 19% of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic — second to Sanders, who led with 31%.

Another national poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News showed Sanders leading with 27%, followed by a quartet virtually tied for second: Biden, 15%, Bloomberg and Warren, 14%, and Buttigieg, 13%.

WASHINGTON — 

Atty. Gen. William Barr has told people close to him he’s considering quitting his post after President Trump wouldn’t heed his warning to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, an administration official told the Associated Press.

The revelation came days after Barr took a public swipe at the president, saying in a television interview that Trump’s tweets about Justice Department cases and staffers make it “impossible” for him to do his job. The next day, Trump ignored Barr’s request and insisted that he has the “legal right” to intervene in criminal cases and sidestep the Justice Department’s historical independence.

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The administration official was not authorized to discuss Barr’s private remarks and requested anonymity.

It’s unclear how seriously Barr has considered resigning or whether he is instead trying to pressure Trump to back off his provocative tweets about the Justice Department. Barr’s spokeswoman said late Tuesday that the attorney general “has no plans to resign.”

Barr is one of the president’s closest allies in the administration and has been a staunch defender of Trump’s policy decisions. But considering resigning from his post suggests he sees the Justice Department’s reputation as an institution that makes decisions on criminal cases independently, unmoved and unbound by political sway, as more important than his allegiance to the president.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that he’s considering suing those involved in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and opined that his confidant Roger Stone deserved a new trial after being convicted of witness tampering and obstruction.

Barr’s comments about Trump’s tweets came during an interview with ABC News just days after his Justice Department overruled its own prosecutors — who had recommended in a court filing that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison — and took the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it would seek. All four prosecutors from Stone’s trial quit the case and one left the Justice Department altogether.

The reversal came after Trump blasted the original sentencing recommendation as “very horrible and unfair,” though officials have insisted the decision to make a new recommendation came before Trump’s tweet.

“I’m happy to say that, in fact, the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,” Barr said in the ABC News interview. “However, to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people … about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.”

The attorney general had been sharing the same sentiment privately with Trump for several weeks, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person was not authorized to discuss Barr’s private conversations and requested anonymity.

Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday, Trump said he understood his tweets makes Barr’s job harder, but he showed no signs of relenting. He said he had “total confidence in my attorney general” but insisted that “everybody has the right to speak their mind.” He added: “And I probably wouldn’t have gotten here without social media because I certainly don’t get fair press.”

“Yeah, I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true,” Trump said. “He’s a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general, and he’s working very hard. … But I will say this: Social media, for me, has been very important because it gives me a voice, because I don’t get that voice in the press. In the media, I don’t get that voice. So I’m allowed to have a voice.”

Barr, serving in his second stint as attorney general, sought to paint himself as an independent leader who would not bow to political pressure. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general. Barr proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power.

Trump would likely face a challenge trying to find a replacement for Barr, who is overseeing several investigations that are important to the president, including a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe. Any nominee would face a grilling in the Senate.

Some Democrats have called for Barr to resign, and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to open an investigation into Barr’s role in the sentencing reversal. More than 1,100 former Justice Department prosecutors called on Barr to resign in a letter released Sunday, insisting that Barr’s decision to intervene in Stone’s case tarnished the department’s reputation.

In recent days, a stream of Trump allies, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, have issued statements expressing their full confidence in the attorney general. But Trump has a low tolerance for criticism, especially public criticism, from his allies and often fires back in kind.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Graham released a joint statement on Tuesday, calling Barr a “man of the highest character and unquestionable integrity.”

“I think he’s doing an excellent job,” Trump said of the attorney general on Tuesday. “He’s a strong guy.”

SACRAMENTO — 

Michael R. Bloomberg would sell the financial data and media company he created in the 1980s — which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire — if he is elected U.S. president, a top advisor said Tuesday.

The former New York mayor would put Bloomberg LP into a blind trust, and the trustee would then sell the company, advisor Tim O’Brien said. Proceeds from the sale would go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable giving arm that funds causes including climate change, public health and grants for American cities.

The only restriction Bloomberg would put on the sale is that it not be sold to a foreign buyer or a private equity company, O’Brien said. Bloomberg is chief executive of the company.

“We want to be 180 degrees apart from Donald Trump around financial conflicts of interest,” O’Brien told the Associated Press. “We think it’s one of the biggest stains on the presidency, and Trump’s record is his refusal to disengage himself in his own financial interests. And we want to be very transparent and clean and clear with voters about where Mike is on these things.”

As one of the world’s wealthiest people, Bloomberg would have an extraordinarily complicated financial picture to untangle if he wins the presidency. His commitment to selling the company stands in stark contrast to President Trump, who refused to fully divest from his business, instead putting his assets in a trust controlled by his two adult sons and a senior company executive. He has continued to make money from his properties.

Bloomberg said in 2018, when he was weighing a presidential run, that he would consider selling his business if elected. The company is not currently for sale. He retained ownership in the company when he served as mayor from 2002 to 2013, but gave up his title of chief executive.

O’Brien’s comment comes amid increasing scrutiny of the Democratic candidate’s wealth and business holdings from his rivals for the presidential nomination. He’ll face them on the debate stage for the first time on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

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The timeline for a sale if Bloomberg won the White House isn’t clear, O’Brien said. There’s also been no decision on what would happen to Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said such an action would need to follow complex rules and be approved by the ethics office. The administer of the blind trust would need to be an institution, not a person, and it’s not clear how a trustee would navigate confidentiality requirements when trying to sell off a private company, Shaub said. There are no comparable examples of any executive branch official putting a large private company into a blind trust and up for sale, he said.

He said it would be smart for every candidate to set up meetings with the office now to begin discussing potential conflicts of interest.

“Bottom line: It could be a costly mistake for any candidates to make firm commitments to establish qualified blind trusts without first having their attorneys meet with OGE’s director and legal staff,” Shaub tweeted.

Bloomberg created his own company in 1981, after he was fired from the investment bank Salomon Brothers with a $10-million severance payment. His new venture created the Bloomberg Terminal, a dedicated computer with proprietary software that allowed Wall Street traders, buyers and sellers to see financial transaction data in real time. The terminal quickly became a must-have product around the financial world and has been used by entities including the World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Bloomberg then grew the business to include a financial news arm, which has morphed into a major news wire service. The outlet has faced criticism for allowing its reporters to cover the campaign but blocking them from reporting in-depth investigations into Bloomberg or his Democratic rivals. Newsroom leaders didn’t impose similar restrictions on reporting regarding Trump.

Bloomberg has also faced renewed scrutiny over lawsuits filed by women at his company alleging discrimination or hostile treatment. Bloomberg has said he won’t release women from any nondisclosure agreements they’ve signed with the company.

Bloomberg entered the presidential race in November and has been steadily climbing in national polls, buoyed by $400 million in advertising. Worth an estimated $60 billion, he is entirely self-funding his campaign.

WASHINGTON — 

The Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in Las Vegas tonight may be most remembered as the debut of their newest contestant, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

For many voters, this will be their first look at the candidate who has spent an astronomical $330 million so far, but has yet to face off directly against other Democrats. Look for the giant target on his back.

And watch to see if he has turned himself into a New Bloomberg, a Democrat who can attract support from across his divided party.

The Old Bloomberg was an unapologetic champion of capitalism, which made him and others in New York City very wealthy.

“Inequality is a very big problem,” he acknowledged in 2018. “But the bigger problem is you can take money from the rich…. If you do it too much, then the rich stop producing and everybody loses.”

The New Bloomberg still likes capitalism, but he’s no longer as worried about the feelings of the upper crust. Since he began running, he’s proposed a long list of tax increases, including a surtax on anyone who makes more than $5 million a year.

“The rewards of the economy are far too concentrated at the top,” he wrote after he announced his campaign in November.

The Old Bloomberg promoted “stop and frisk,” the aggressive police tactic that targeted young minority men but produced relatively few arrests. A judge ruled the policy unconstitutional, but the former mayor defended it as recently as last year.

Nine months later, the New Bloomberg began his presidential campaign with an uncharacteristic apology: “I was wrong,” he said in a speech at an African American megachurch in Brooklyn. “And I am sorry.”

Before joining the race, the Old Bloomberg mocked Democrats who believed they needed to apologize for their past records. “Joe Biden went out and apologized for being male, over 50, white,” he said.

That was one reason he initially decided not to run, Bloomberg said; he knew he couldn’t win “unless I was willing to change all my views and go on what CNN called an apology tour.”

He’s been on that tour ever since.

The New Bloomberg hasn’t reinvented himself as a progressive in the mold of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. He’s working to position himself squarely in the Democrats’ moderate-to-liberal mainstream.

In recent weeks, his campaign has issued a blizzard of policy statements that have made him sound pretty much like Biden or Amy Klobuchar.

The Old Bloomberg was a scornful critic of Sanders’ “Medicare for All” and other government-run health insurance. The New Bloomberg has offered a proposal that includes a government-run public option, intended only to compete with private insurance plans, not replace them.

The Old Bloomberg once blamed the 2008 financial crash on Congress, which he said “forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp” of creditworthiness.

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The New Bloomberg blamed the crash on “irresponsible banking practices” and proposed a new program to make it easier for moderate-income families to qualify for mortgages.

Perhaps most striking, on Tuesday the New Bloomberg unveiled a proposal for regulating Wall Street that would encourage prosecutors to pursue corporate executives as well as their companies, and toughen the bank regulations known as the Volcker Rule.

The Old Bloomberg criticized the Volcker Rule, which barred banks from making risky trades for themselves rather than clients.

The new proposal would also impose a tax on financial transactions — an idea that has also been endorsed by Sanders, Warren and left-wing icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“The financial system isn’t working the way it should for most Americans,” Bloomberg said, sounding a lot like Sanders. “The stock market is at an all-time high, but almost all of the gains are going to a small number of people.”

The former Salomon Brothers bond trader still opposes the wealth tax that Sanders and Warren want to enact. But at least he has a comeback if one of them accuses him of being too close to Wall Street.

Bloomberg is likely to use those lines tonight. Other candidates, alarmed by his advertising-fueled rise in the polls, are spoiling for a fight.

He’s trying to build a case that, even though he won two mayoral elections in New York as a Republican, he’s just another mainstream Democrat now — not only on gun control and climate change, where he has long held progressive views, but on core economic issues as well.

But the policy details will probably be less important than a more elusive question: who can beat President Trump? That’s what most Democratic voters say they’re looking for this year — not a list of ideological litmus tests.

It’s the argument that Bloomberg has worked relentlessly to sell: that he — not the sometimes-stumbling Biden, the untested Klobuchar or the underexperienced Pete Buttigieg — is best positioned to win back the White House.

Bill Clinton used to invoke an old political adage: Democrats want to fall in love with a candidate; Republicans are happy to fall in line.

Bloomberg seems intent on disproving that rule. His pitch is more practical: that he has the money, the toughness and broad enough appeal to beat the president.

All he has to do is persuade his fellow Democrats to forget the old Bloomberg and embrace — or at least accept — the new one.

Seeded No. 7 out of eight teams in the Southern Section Open Division basketball playoffs, Santa Ana Mater Dei was hardly on anyone’s radar to be a disruptor in pool play.

But the Monarchs (24-6) pulled off the feat of beating No. 2-seeded Corona Centennial and No. 3-seeded Temecula Rancho Christian in consecutive road playoff games. Standout point guard Devin Askew, a Kentucky commit, came through with a career-high 43 points on Tuesday night in a 76-71 win over Rancho Christian. He was seven of seven from three-point range.

Those upset victories still don’t guarantee the Monarchs a spot in the Feb. 28 championship game at The Pyramid in Long Beach. They will have to defeat Studio City Harvard-Westlake on the road Friday night. Harvard-Westlake received 19 points from Truman Gettings and `16 from Mason Hooks in a 68-57 road victory over Corona Centennial. Harvard-Westlake could make the final if it defeats Mater Dei and Rancho Christian loses to Centennial.

Otherwise, the Monarchs will be seeking their 24th section title under coach Gary McKnight. The Monarchs ended the regular season with few signature victories. McKnight was waiting for a sign his team might finally live up to its preseason hype as No. 2 behind Chatsworth Sierra Canyon. After finally getting healthy following illnesses and injuries, it could be happening.

The other four-team pool has gone as expected. Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda (28-2) and Sierra Canyon (26-4) are set to play Friday night at Calabasas to decide the other final berth.

Etiwanda used a suffocating defensive effort to defeat Bellflower St. John Bosco 60-38. Jaylen Clark scored 16 points to lead the Eagles.

Sierra Canyon had its usual flurry of dunks in a 61-49 win over Long Beach St. Anthony. Amari Bailey finished with 17 points, BJ Boston 12 and Ziaire Williams 11. But the Trailblazers did not play at the level that surely will be needed Friday against Etiwanda.

“That wasn’t the best display of what we’re capable of,” Bailey said.

Said coach Andre Chevalier: “We were complacent. One, we were happy with the first win and two, we were looking forward to playing Etiwanda on Friday. Not taking anything away from St. Anthony … they played their butts off, but we were not focused.”

Now the focus will be on an Etiwanda team that lost to Sierra Canyon 57-53 in December. Etiwanda has added Clark and Sierra Canyon has added Williams.

“They’re the toughest defense in Los Angeles by far,” Chevalier said. “They’re physical and this year they have five guys who can score. It’s going to be a war.”

Bailey said he planned to go home and start studying.

“I’m going to watch my last game,” Bailey said. “I’m still trying to figure out how their defense is. I’m going to do my homework.”

In Division 1, Los Angeles Windward brought an end to the fabulous four-year high school career of Joshua Christopher with a 67-65 win over Lakewood Mayfair. Christopher finished with 25 points. Dior Johnson led Mayfair with 33 points. Marcus Joseph had 18 points for Windward, which will play San Juan Capistrano JSerra in the semifinals.

Riverside Poly defeated Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 77-49. Evan Oliver had 25 points.

In 2-AA, St. Francis upset No. 2-seeded Heritage Christian 71-53. Andre Henry scored 22 points. Chaminade received 24 points from Kenneth Simpson in a 73-57 win over Capistrano Valley Christian. Eastvale Roosevelt rallied for a 64-57 overtime win over Alemany. Paul Ezeanyim scored 22 points.