It’s crunch time in the Democratic primaries, as Iowa caucuses today. Yet amid heightened tensions, Donald Trump’s ire was directed towards a candidate who isn’t even on the ballot there.
‘Mini Mike is now negotiating both to get on the Democrat Primary debate stage, and to have the right to stand on boxes, or a lift, during the debates,’ President Trump tweeted yesterday. ‘This is sometimes done, but really not fair!’
It’s hardly uncharacteristic for the president to focus on Michael Bloomberg’s height — at 5’8, according to Google, the former New York mayor is the joint-shortest of those candidates still in the primary field. But how do the rest of the Dems measure up to Trump?
At 6’3, the Donald towers over all his potential opponents. In fact, he’s the third tallest president to date. Lyndon B. Johnson beats him by half an inch. At 6’4 (without the hat), Abraham Lincoln is America’s tallest president yet.
Closest in height to Trump are the two front-runners, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, who are both 6’0. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is decidedly not a front-runner, is also 6’0.
Next, at 5’11, is entrepreneur Andrew Yang. While shy of 6’0, Yang makes up for it with his jump shot. He could probably teach Trump a thing or two on the court.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg is next, at 5’9. Cockburn imagines Pete would look you dead in the eye and assure you that he’s ‘average height’. At least there’s not much risk of him hitting his head on the ceiling of a wine cave!
Joining Bloomberg as the shortest 2020 Democrats are the two favored candidates of the New York Times, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. Despite her small stature, Warren tends to shun heels. When Cockburn saw her in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Atlanta last year, the Massachusetts senator was donning a fresh pair of Nike AirMaxes. Perhaps she could make up the height difference with a full headdress? Just a thought.
Cockburn couldn’t dig up accurate heights for Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (what, you didn’t think we’d forgotten him, did you?). He’s stood next to Gabbard, and would guess she’s around 5’9, though he didn’t check her footwear because he was too lost in her eyes. Steyer is probably around 5’11 too, but really we should knock off an inch or two for that awful tartan tie. Cockburn has emailed the Gabbard, Patrick and Steyer campaigns and will update his story if they get back to him. No reason they’d be busy today, right?
