Billionaire Tom Steyer announces he\'s not running for president in 2020 and will focus on Trump impeachment campaign

Tom SteyerBillionaire and activist Tom SteyerCindy Ord/Getty Images

Billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer on Wednesday announced he's not running for president in 2020, and will instead focus on pushing for President Donald Trump's impeachment. 

In a tweet, Steyer said, "The impeachment question has reached an inflection point. That's why I just announced that I will be dedicating 100% of my time and effort in 2019 towards Mr. Trump's impeachment and removal from office."

In a statement, he added: "This is the biggest issue in American politics today. We have a lawless president in the White House who is eroding our democracy and it is only going to get worse."

Steyer, an unapologetic critic of Trump, has been pouring millions into a campaign to impeach the president. 

The billionaire said he would spend $40 million toward the campaign moving forward. 

The campaign, "Need to Impeach," has amassed an email list of over 6 million people.

 

Steyer has made a name for himself as a climate activist and is the founder of the climate-focused group NextGen America.

Steyer was among the Democratic figures targeted with attempted bombings in October 2018. 

Around that time, Trump attacked Steyer in a tweet, referring to the billionaire as "Wacky Tom Steyer."

"He comes off as a crazed & stumbling lunatic who should be running out of money pretty soon," Trump added. "As bad as their field is, if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!"

The billionaire would hardly have been a frontrunner among what's expected to be a highly crowded Democratic field of contenders.

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