Michael Bloomberg urged to drop out of 2020 race by Bernie Sanders' campaign over leaked audio

Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign has called on Mike Bloomberg to drop out of the Democratic primaries over leaked audio seemingly showing the billionaire White House hopeful defending his controversial stop-and-frisk initiative as a former mayor.

Nina Turner, one of the Vermont senator’s top campaign surrogates and national co-chairwoman of his 2020 campaign, said in a statement to Axios: “What has been exposed is the true nature of Mayor Bloomberg. So, one apology just because you're running for president does not erase the damage that you have done.”

“He should not be running, now that that has come up,” she added. “I think he should drop out of the race."

The comments come as Mr Sanders appears to be leading the polls ahead of the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary. Mr Bloomberg, one of the last editions to the already-crowded field of Democratic candidates, declined to campaign heavily in any of the crucial early-voting states, often seen as essential in securing the Democratic nomination.

Mr Bloomberg, who has targeted black voters in his late bid for the nomination in key states, has faced significant backlash over the stop-and-frisk policy he instituted throughout New York City as mayor, which targeted black and brown residents and was later determined to have been used in unconstitutional manners by law enforcement.

The former mayor was heard saying in the leaked audio from a talk at the Aspen Institute in 2015: “Ninety-five percent of murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops.”

He continued: “They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city (inaudible).”

The former mayor went on to say that “one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.'”

He added: “Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”

Mr Bloomberg has since apologised for supporting the policy and said it led to a disproportionately negative impact on minority communities across the city.

On Tuesday, Ms Turner told Axios she was speaking “as a black woman in America; not as somebody that works for Senator Bernie Sanders”.

She added: “The distaste that so many black people and brown people and poor people have for law enforcement comes from policies like [stop-and-frisk].”