Bloomberg campaign spending would not have made us all millionaires

CLAIM: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads for his 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. While Bloomberg did spend $500 million nationally on television, radio and digital ads, the figures circulating on social media don’t add up.

THE FACTS: The claim was made in a tweet posted on Super Tuesday: “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”

A check of the numbers, however, showed that each American would actually get about $1.53.

Bloomberg, one of the wealthiest people in the country, dropped out of the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday, following a disappointing show in Super Tuesday races. He has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.

The amount he spent on the race has come under criticism.

Mara Gay, a member of The New York Times editorial board, highlighted the numbers used in a tweet by journalist Mekita Rivas during a segment Thursday with Brian Williams on MSNBC.

“It’s true, it’s disturbing. It does suggest what we’re talking about here, which is there is too much money in politics,” Gay said.

On Friday, Gay acknowledged the mistake, tweeting that she would be “buying a calculator.”

William’s show, 11th Hour, tweeted a correction and apologized early Friday morning.

“Tonight on the air we quoted a tweet that relied on bad math,” the account said. “We corrected the error after the next commercial break and have removed it from later editions of tonight’s program. We apologize for the error.”

Rivas, who made the claim, added a comment on her Twitter bio to address the tweet: “I know, I’m bad at math.”

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This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536