a8 eZ m2 the washington post.thursday, february 20 , 2020
Sanders offered a l engthy plea for
solutions to income inequality —
including putting workers on
corporate boards. At one point, a
moderator asked Bloomberg i f he
should be allowed to “exist.”
Bloomberg offered the dispas-
sionate case for his campaign: “I
can’t think of a way that would
make it easier for Donald Trump
to get reelected than listening to
this conversation.”
As in previous debates, Butt-
igieg and Klobuchar did little to
hide their disdain for each other.
Buttigieg repeatedly attacked
Klobuchar for her voting record
and campaign performance.
Klobuchar, who rode a breakout
debate performance in New
Hampshire to a surprising third-
place finish in the first-in-the-na-
tion primary state, was asked to
address the fact that she could
not name the president of mexico
at an event last week.
“I don’t think that that mo-
ment, that momentary forgetful-
ness, actually reflects what I
know about mexico. And how
much I care about it,” Klobuchar
said.
Buttigieg seized on that mo-
ment to make an argument he
has made against Klobuchar in
their many heated exchanges in
previous debates: He suggested
her Washington experience has
not prepared her for the presi-
dency as well as she says it has.
“A re you trying to say that I’m
dumb, or are you mocking me
here?” Klobuchar asked, visibly
upset. Later she shot back, sar-
castically, “I wish everyone was
as perfect as you, Pete.”
Eventually, Warren ended the
discussion for them.
“I understand that she forgot a
name,” Warren said. “It happens.
It happens to everyone on this
stage.”
During the exchange, Biden
attempted to interject. “I’m the
only one who knows this man.
And met with him. C’mon, man!”
“Can I get a chance to say some-
thing?” he asked again, eventual-
ly getting to tick off his experi-
ence and his knowledge of world
leaders.
Biden, who had squabbled
with Bloomberg in the lead-up to
the debate over who has the right
to claim the legacy of Barack
obama, grew most animated
over Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk
policy that targeted young black
men in New York.
“It’s not w hether he apologized
or not. It’s the policy,” Biden said.
“The policy was abhorrent and a
violation of every right people
have.”
“I’ve sat,” Bloomberg said. “I’ve
apologized. I’ve asked for forgive-
ness.”
But then, he said, everyone
onstage had a problem in their
past.
“If we took off everybody that
was wrong on this off this panel,
everybody that was wrong on
criminal justice at some time in
their careers, there’d be nobody
else up here,” he said, as several
candidates shook their heads.
[email protected]
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[email protected]election 2020
Democratic nomination.
“I think we have two questions
to face tonight. one is, who can
beat Donald Trump? And num-
ber two, who can do the job if
they get into the White House?”
Bloomberg said. “A nd I would
argue that I am the candidate
that can do exactly both of those
things.”
The debate came at a pivotal
point i n the campaign, three days
before the third contest of the
year, Saturday’s Nevada caucus-
es.
The debate was the first in
which Sanders was the clear
front-runner in the race, having
jumped to the top of national
polls and forcing many in the
party to grapple with the idea
that he is in the best position to
take a large delegate lead in
coming weeks. But he has often
been an afterthought in debates,
with other candidates more fo-
cused on which moderate is the
best to take on Sanders than
actually challenging Sanders.
As Sanders has soared, long-
time leader Biden has plummet-
ed, and Warren has struggled to
regain ground. Buttigieg and
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-minn.)
have sought to build national
campaigns after surprisingly
strong finishes in Iowa and New
Hampshire. for several of the
candidates, a weak showing in
Saturday’s vote or the South Car-
olina p rimary on feb. 29 could be
dire.
Bloomberg has made his pres-
ence felt not at the polls — his
name will not be on a ballot until
the Super Tuesday primaries on
march 3 — but with his outsize
advertising presence.
Ye t onstage, he struggled, roll-
ing his eyes when he was scruti-
nized and finding it difficult to
work his way into exchanges.
“What am I, chicken liver?” he
said at one point, voicing frustra-
tion over his inability to get time
to speak.
The remade debate stage un-
leashed tensions over the role of
money in politics, each candi-
date’s loyalty to the party and the
lack of transparency on medical
records and tax returns.
Sanders said he would not
release additional medical re-
cords as he once promised, while
Bloomberg insisted his tax re-
turns would be made public in a
few weeks.
“It just takes us a long time,”
Bloomberg said, saying that his
tax returns are too lengthy to
release quickly and that he
couldn’t merely go to TurboTax.
“Pay overtime,” Warren said.
“A nd get it done.”
Warren came to the debate
with more fire; even her allies
found her last debate perfor-
mance disappointing. She had
barbs for everyone, accusing
Biden of being too cozy with Sen.
mitch mcConnell (r-Ky.) and rid-
iculing Buttigieg’s health-careWarren (D-mass.) and former
South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete
Buttigieg, came out swinging,
each of them aiming to avoid
elimination from the race. Con-
tenders who had once respected
time limits eagerly spoke over
one another, posing questions
directly to each other; former
vice president Joe Biden, facing
his own make-or-break moment,
was among those who repeatedly
interrupted with the phrase “Let
me finish!”
Sanders (I-Vt.) was challenged
on his electability and ques-
tioned on his health, the combat-
iveness of his online supporters
and the viability of his policy
prescriptions. Bloomberg was hit
for his political record, his al-
leged coarse descriptions of
women, his extraordinary wealth
and his contention that he is best
positioned to defeat President
Trump. The other candidates on
the stage, who have attended
each of the previous eight debate
rounds, took advantage of their
first opportunity to directly chal-
lenge the billionaire, who has
spent more than $339 million of
his own money on advertising to
put his campaign in contention.
Sanders accused Bloomberg of
supporting the “outrageous” pol-
icy of stop-and-frisk policing and
accumulating more wealth than
the poorest 120 million Ameri-
cans, which he called “immoral.”
Warren described Bloomberg as
“a billionaire who calls women
fat broads and horse-faced lesbi-
ans,” a reference to quotes attrib-
uted to him in a booklet written
by a former employee, which
Bloomberg disputes. Buttigieg
accused Bloomberg of trying to
“buy this party out.” Biden called
Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk poli-
cy “abhorrent” and said the
obama administration had to
intervene.
Warren, taking the tone of a
prosecutor, challenged Bloomberg
to release women who worked at
his firm from nondisclosure agree-
ments signed as part of harass-
ment settlements, and she sug-
gested his response to criticism
about how he treated women in
the workplace amounted to him
saying “I treated some women
well.”
“We’re not going to end these
agreements because they were
made consensually,” Bloomberg
said, to boos from the crowd.
Bloomberg, who often stood
steely-faced with both hands
gripping the lectern, responded
by declaring that if Sanders be-
came the nominee, Trump’s re-
election would be guaranteed,
not solely because his medicare-
for-all plan w ould remove private
health insurance for 160 million
Americans. Bloomberg had pre-
viously said that he would spend
substantially to help Sanders de-
feat Trump if the senator wins the
Debate from a
Bloomberg is hit hard
in a gloves-o≠ debate
Buttigieg. Their antagonism is
not n ew, but the s takes have been
raised by t he t ests t hey face in
Nevada and South Carolina i n
proving they can appeal to a far
more diverse e lectorate than i n
Iowa and New Hampshire.
The primary-season calendar
is now a f riend to Sanders. In p ast
years, there h as sometimes b een
more than a week between last of
the e arly-state primaries a nd
caucuses and Super Tuesday. T his
year, Super Tuesday follows S outh
Carolina by three days.
other than Sanders o r
Bloomberg, n o candidate h as
sufficient money t o make a real
dent in the Super Tuesday s tates,
though s ome have w orked t o put
organizations into place.
The question of whether
Sanders can be s topped and who
might be able to do t hat might be
getting ahead of the s tory, b ut the
final m oments of the d ebate
showed how much this is at the
center of the campaign.
The candidates were a sked
whether the p erson w ith t he most
pledged d elegates, e ven if not a
majority, s hould be rewarded
with a first-ballot victory at the
national convention o r should the
convention decide at that
moment what to do. Everyone b ut
Sanders said the c onvention
should be allowed to work its will.
Sanders stood a lone o n the o ther
side.
That i s what awaits the
Democrats in t he c oming months.
[email protected]in national polls, a development
that has t riggered a larms and
considerable resentment from
the o ther candidates.
The pummeling o f Bloomberg
was e xpected, and t he big
question was how he would
respond. At times, he fired b ack at
his critics. At o ther times, h e
seemed to avoid jumping i n when
he came under fire.
Buttigieg warned D emocrats
that nominating either
Bloomberg or Sanders w ould put
the p arty at risk. “We shouldn’t
have to choose b etween one
candidate who wants to burn this
party d own and a nother
candidate who wants to buy this
party o ut,” h e said.
on the issue of stop-and-frisk,
Bloomberg repeated his p re-
campaign apology for t he p olicies
he pursued as mayor. But when
he t ried t o explain w hy h e had
sought to change the p olicy,
Biden slammed h im, claiming
that it was only because o f the
intervention of the o bama
administration and n ot because
of Bloomberg’s i nitiative.
During the debate, Bloomberg
was attacked f or operating a
workplace hostile to women, for
calling t he Affordable C are Act a
“disgrace,” f or failing so far to
release his tax returns — he said
he is working o n them — and f or
having supported then-President
George W. B ush in 2 004.
Some of the m ost pointed
exchanges, however, were
between Klobuchar andKlobuchar ( D-minn.) a nd former
South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete
Buttigieg, their candidacies
facing fresh challenges, sparred
with one a nother. former vice
president Joe Biden went a fter
Bloomberg and Sanders.
No o ne was m ore aggressive
than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-
mass.), w ho was n early invisible
at t he New Hampshire debate two
weeks ago and c ame to regret it.
With her candidacy in jeopardy,
she w as relentless in attacks on
Bloomberg’s record.
“Democrats are not going to
win i f we have a nominee w ho has
a history of hiding his tax returns,
of harassing women, and o f
supporting racist p olicies like
redlining and stop-and-frisk,”
Warren said i n the opening
minutes o f the d ebate. “ Look, I ’ll
support whoever the D emocratic
nominee i s. B ut understand t his:
Democrats take a h uge risk i f we
just substitute one arrogant
billionaire f or another.”
Bloomberg’s presence o n the
stage added a n ew d ynamic to a
group o f candidates w ho h ave
gotten used t o debating one
another and often have avoided
the k ind of d irect clashes that
peppered the debate Wednesday
night.
Bloomberg has focused his
efforts on contests starting i n
march, w hile skipping the first
four events that have reshaped
the race. His spending and t he
results f rom Iowa a nd New
Hampshire h ave helped h im riseThose i ngredients are likely t o
combine t o boost S anders, a s
many Democrats predicted o n
the n ight he n arrowly won New
Hampshire. With Sanders
increasingly consolidating the
left w ing of t he p arty a nd the non-
Sanders supporters split among
others i n the field, the senator
from Vermont h as positioned
himself t o gain an advantage i n
pledged d elegates over the next
40 days of competition.
Bloomberg, t he newest
candidate on t he s tage, came i n
for t he harshest attacks, a n
unruly welcome t o someone w ho
has f aced n o serious scrutiny
since announcing his c andidacy.
He o ften struggled to parry t hem
effectively, p articularly when
challenged on his record on stop-
and-frisk as mayor a nd w hen
called on t o release women who
had s igned nondisclosure
agreements o ver w orkplace
treatment at h is company.
But t he attacks weren’t l imited
to the billionaire former mayor.
At one point or another, n early
everyone on the stage drew
criticism f rom someone e lse.
Sanders was criticized a s too
polarizing and for o ffering
health-care a nd o ther proposals
without a p lan t o pay for them.
The debate started w ith a n
explosion of attacks and rarely
slowed down, w ith c andidates
vying to get into the f ray and
talking o ver o ne another so loudly
at t imes that t he m oderators
struggled to keep order. S en. AmyNo d ebate i n this campaign
began with more at stake — and
with more expectations that i t
could mark a n important shift in
the race. Bloomberg’s p resence on
the s tage w as one big r eason. B ut
so, t oo, w as the g rowing reality
that Sanders b uilt u p significant
momentum in the first two
contests and is applying i t to
future contests in ways that could
make him ever more difficult t o
stop.
Ahead o f the debate, a d ual
sensibility permeated
conversation among Democratic
Party strategists. one, t hat only
Bloomberg has the r esources to
compete a s broadly on Super
Tuesday and beyond a s Sanders.
Two, t hat all the other candidates
competing t o become t he
alternative to Sanders a nd who
have been r unning for the p ast
year were not w illing to concede
anything to a candidate w ho
hasn’t been o n any of the first four
ballots.
Bloomberg s upporters have
not h idden their belief t hat only
he has t he potential to stop
Sanders and that, i n a general
election, he has the resources and
the p ositioning to defeat Trump.
As t he d ebate showed, the o ther
candidates s ee him r ight now as
an i ntruder of u ncertain
Democratic Party lineage ( much
like Trump w ith the republicans
in 2016) a nd resent t he
unprecedented amounts o f his
own m oney he h as poured into
the campaign.and mike B loomberg, the
billionaire former m ayor of New
York, rising at t he expense of
others w ho h ave been fighting t o
become a center-left alternative
to Sanders.
Everything that was on d isplay
Wednesday night — as well a s
everyone o n the stage — showed
the t ension that now exists a nd
the s ense o f urgency that time is
running o ut on some o f them.
Sanders’s rise has raised fears
that, i f he were the nominee, his
brand of d emocratic socialism
could doom the p arty t o defeat
against President Trump, along
with many candidates f or House
and S enate.
one measure o f how rapidly
things are changing is t his: In
barely a w eek, the question has
shifted from whether Sanders has
a ceiling, based on the fact that h e
managed j ust a quarter of t he
vote in both Iowa and New
Hampshire, to whether he can b e
stopped. The answer to that
question could b e known as early
as Super Tuesday, less than two
weeks away.
Some Democrats see
Bloomberg as t he one c andidate
could sell b etter i n a general
election, and there have been
suggestions that the t ime is
coming for t he party t o coalesce
around him. B ut nobody on the
stage Wednesday n ight showed
any willingness to give the f ormer
mayor any quarter.
taKe from a
the take
Other Democratic candidates roiled by Sanders’s strength, Bloomberg’s resources
demning the rhetoric of his more
boisterous supporters.
“A t a certain point, you’ve got
to ask yourself: Why did this
pattern arise?” Buttigieg said to
Sanders. “Leadership is about
what you draw out of people. It’s
about how you inspire people to
act.”
Sanders responded by suggest-
ing that russian interference
could be responsible for some of
the online vitriol.
“We have over 10.6 million
people on Twitter, and 99.9 per-
cent of them are decent human
beings, are working people, are
people who believe in justice,
compassion and love,” he said.
“A nd if there are a few people
who make ugly remarks... I
disown those people. They are
not part of our movement.”
When the conversation turned
to whether Americans should be
allowed to become billionaires,The agreements, Warren said,
will be used by the republicans
to attack Bloomberg, prompting
a “drip, drip, drip” of damaging
information. “We can’t just sub-
stitute one arrogant billionaire
for another,” she said at one
point, comparing the former
mayor to Trump.
Buttigieg built on arguments
he has been making for the past
week, suggesting that voters
“could wake up two weeks from
now” having to choose “between
a socialist who thinks that capi-
talism is the root of all evil and a
billionaire who thinks that mon-
ey ought to be the root of all
power.”
He said Sanders hasn’t been
fully transparent about how he
will fund medicare-for-all. He
argued that Sanders’s approach
excludes too many people to beat
Trump in November. And he
criticized Sanders for not con-plan as being concocted by con-
sultants.
“It’s not a plan; it’s a Power-
Point,” Warren said. She then
turned to Klobuchar and dis-
missed her plan as “a Post-it
note.”
Later, she accused Klobuchar
of having small ideas. Her perfor-
mance got results: About an hour
into the debate, Warren’s cam-
paign said it had its best hour of
fundraising to date.
Warren rose to national promi-
nence with her searing question-
ing of witnesses, first on a con-
gressional panel overseeing fed-
eral bailout money and later in
the Senate. She showed that side
for the first time on the campaign
trail, pressing Bloomberg repeat-
edly on why he would not release
women from their nondisclosure
agreements and demanding to
know how m any his company has
signed.John Locher/associated Pressmario tama/agence France-Presse/getty images
tOP: Pete buttigieg and Sen. amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) traded barbs over experience and readiness.
both have sought to build national campaigns after strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
abOVe: Joe biden faced his own critical moment after fourth- and fifth-place finishes in two states.