Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Debate Night Brawl: Bloomberg, Sanders Attacked by Rivals
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
February 20, 2020

Share

LAS VEGAS — From the opening bell, Democrats savaged New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and raised pointed questions about Bernie Sanders’ take-no-prisoners politics during a contentious debate Wednesday night that threatened to further muddy the party’s urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump.

Sen. Warren labeled Bloomberg “a billionaire who calls people fat broads and horse-faced lesbians.”
Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who was once a Republican, was forced to defend his record and past comments related to race, gender and his personal wealth in an occasionally rocky debate stage debut. Sanders, meanwhile, tried to beat back pointed questions about his embrace of democratic socialism and his health following a heart attack last year.
The ninth debate of this cycle featured the most aggressive sustained period of infighting in the Democrats’ yearlong search for a presidential nominee. The tension reflected growing anxiety among candidates and party leaders that the nomination fight could yield a candidate who will struggle to build a winning coalition in November to beat Trump.
The campaign is about to quickly intensify. Nevada votes on Saturday and South Carolina follows on February 29. More than a dozen states host Super Tuesday contests in less than two weeks with about one-third of the delegates needed to win the nomination at stake.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in a fight for survival and stood out with repeated attacks on Bloomberg. She sought to undermine him with core Democratic voters who are uncomfortable with his vast wealth, his offensive remarks about policing of minorities and demeaning comments about women, including those who worked at his company.
Warren labeled Bloomberg “a billionaire who calls people fat broads and horse-faced lesbians.”
She wasn’t alone.
Photo of Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, right, reaching for former Vice President Joe Biden
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, right, reach for former Vice President Joe Biden during a Democratic presidential primary debate Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Trump Joined the Bloomberg Pile On

Sanders lashed out at Bloomberg’s policing policies as New York City mayor that Sanders said targeted “African-American and Latinos in an outrageous way.”
And former Vice President Joe Biden charged that Bloomberg’s “stop-and-frisk” policy ended up “throwing 5 million black men up against the wall.”

“I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating Donald Trump. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses!” — Mike Bloomberg 
Watching during his Western campaign swing, Trump joined the Bloomberg pile on. “Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones,” Trump tweeted. “He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent. If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will. Not so easy to do what I did!”
After the debate, Warren told reporters: “I have no doubt that Michael Bloomberg is reaching in his pocket right now, and spending another hundred million dollars to try to erase every American’s memory about what happened on the debate stage.”
On a night that threatened to tarnish the shine of his carefully constructed TV-ad image, Bloomberg faltered when attacked on issues related to race and gender. But he was firm and unapologetic about his wealth and how he has used it to affect change important to Democrats. He took particular aim at Sanders and his self-description as a democratic socialist.
“I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating Donald Trump,” Bloomberg declared before noting Sanders’ rising wealth. “The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses!”
Sanders defended owning multiple houses, noting he has one in Washington, where he works, and two in Vermont, the state he represents in the Senate.

Bloomberg and Sanders Were Prime Targets

While Bloomberg was the shiny new object Wednesday, the debate also marked a major test for Sanders, who is emerging as the front-runner in the Democrats’ nomination fight, whether his party’s establishment likes it or not. A growing group of donors, elected officials and political operatives fear that Sanders’ uncompromising progressive politics could be a disaster in the general election against Trump, yet they’ve struggled to coalesce behind a single moderate alternative.
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, went after both Bloomberg and Sanders, warning that one threatened to “burn down” the Democratic Party and the other was trying to buy it.
He called them “the two most polarizing figures on this stage,” with little chance of defeating Trump or helping congressional Democrats in contests with Republicans.
Bloomberg and Sanders were prime targets, but the stakes were no less dire for the other four candidates on stage.
Longtime establishment favorite Biden, a two-term vice president, desperately needed to breathe new life into his flailing campaign, which entered the night at the bottom of a moderate muddle behind Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. And after a bad finish last week in New Hampshire, Warren was fighting to resurrect her stalled White House bid.
A Warren campaign aide said on Twitter that her fiery first hour of debate was her best hour of fundraising “to date.”
The other leading progressive in the race, Sanders came under attack from Biden and Bloomberg for his embrace of democratic socialism.
Sanders, as he has repeatedly over the last year, defended the cost of his signature “Medicare for All” healthcare plan, which would eliminate the private insurance industry in favor of a government-backed healthcare system that would cover all Americans.

Photo of Democratic presidential candidates
From left, Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., stand on stage before a Democratic presidential primary debate Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC. (AP Photo/John Locher)

And Ongoing Animosity Flared Between Buttigieg and Klobuchar

“When you asked Bernie how much it cost last time he said…’We’ll find out,’” Biden quipped. “It costs over $35 trillion, let’s get real.”
And ongoing animosity flared between Buttigieg and Klobuchar when the former Indiana mayor slammed the three-term Minnesota senator for failing to answer questions in a recent interview about Mexican policy and forgetting the name of the Mexican president.

“When you asked Bernie how much it cost last time he said…’We’ll find out.’ It costs over $35 trillion, let’s get real.” — former Vice President Joe Biden
Buttigieg noted that she’s on a committee that oversees trade issues in Mexico and she “was not able to speak to literally the first thing about the politics of the country.”
She shot back: “Are you trying to say I’m dumb? Are you mocking me here?”
Later in the night she lashed out at Buttigieg again: “I wish everyone else was as perfect as you, Pete.”
The debate closed with a question about the possibility that Democrats remain divided deep into the primary season with a final resolution coming during a contested national convention in July.
Asked if the candidate with the most delegates should be the nominee — even if he or she is short of a delegate majority, almost every candidate suggested that the convention process should “work its way out,” as Biden put it.
Sanders, who helped force changes to the nomination process this year and hopes to take a significant delegate lead in the coming weeks, was the only exception.
“The person who has the most votes should become the nominee,” he said.

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

DON'T MISS

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

DON'T MISS

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

DON'T MISS

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

UP NEXT

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

UP NEXT

Republicans on House Ethics Reject for Now Releasing Report on Matt Gaetz

UP NEXT

Defining Deviancy Down. And Down. And Down.

UP NEXT

Lawmakers Are Concerned About Background Checks of Trump’s Cabinet Picks as Red Flags Surface

UP NEXT

Matt Gaetz Meets Privately With Senators to Shore Up Support as House Ethics Decision Looms

UP NEXT

To the Wire: Rep. John Duarte Grows His Lead Over Adam Gray In Razor Thin Race

UP NEXT

Bomb Cyclone Kills 1 and Knocks Out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

UP NEXT

Trump Chooses Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker as NATO Ambassador

UP NEXT

What to Know About Linda McMahon, Trump’s Pick for Education Secretary

UP NEXT

With Democracy Supposedly at Stake, California Voters Stayed Away in Droves

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

1 hour ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

1 hour ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

2 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

2 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

2 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

3 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

3 hours ago

Fresno Council Lowers Speed Limits on Friant and Audubon

3 hours ago

How About an Honest Conversation About the Range of Light Monument Proposal?

4 hours ago

UConn Coach Geno Auriemma Breaks NCAA Wins Record With 1,217th Victory

4 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

Gov. Gavin Newsom in a stop Thursday in Fresno defended the recent actions of his air board, saying he takes “pride” in new clim...

6 minutes ago

6 minutes ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
36 minutes ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

40 minutes ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

1 hour ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
1 hour ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

2 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

2 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

2 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend