LAS VEGAS -- From the opening bell, Democrats unleashed a verbal assault on New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and raised new questions about Sen. Bernie Sanders' take-no-prisoners politics in a debate Wednesday night on the Las Vegas strip.
The former New York City mayor was forced to defend his record on race, gender and Wall Street in his debate-stage debut, while Sanders, appearing in his ninth of the 2020 primary season, tried to beat back pointed questions about his health and his ability to defeat President Donald Trump this fall.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was a leading aggressor early against Bloomberg. She called him "a billionaire who calls people fat broads and horse-faced lesbians."
"I'd like to talk about who we're running against -- a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. And no I'm not talking about Donald Trump, I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg," Warren said, arguing that the country shouldn't swap "one arrogant billionaire for another."
The debate came just three days before Nevada voters decide the third contest of the Democratic Party's 2020 primary season.
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Sanders criticized Bloomberg's policing policies as New York City mayor that he said targeted "African-American and Latinos in an outrageous way."
And former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that Bloomberg's "stop-and-frisk" policy ended up "throwing 5 million black men up against the wall."
Sanders said Bloomberg's "stop-and-frisk" policy was too polarizing for a general election candidate.
Bloomberg defended himself on all counts and took a shot at Sanders' electability: "I don't think there's any chance of the senator beating Donald Trump."
Bloomberg says the controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy represents the singular thing he's "really worried about and embarrassed about" from his time as mayor.
He has repeatedly apologized for the policy, which gave police wide authority to detain people they suspected of committing a crime.
Bloomberg pursued the tactic when he first took over as mayor in 2002. A federal judge found in 2013 that stop and frisk intentionally and systematically violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of people by wrongly targeting black and Hispanic men.
Bloomberg blasted the ruling at the time, calling it a "dangerous decision made by a judge who I think does not understand how policing works and what is compliant with the U.S. Constitution."
JABS ALL AROUND
Asked about Sanders' tweet that "billionaires should not exist," Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said during Wednesday's Democratic debate that she supported capitalism but also an appropriate tax rate on wealth.
When Sanders argued that billionaires pay an unfairly low tax rate compared to the middle class, Bloomberg asked, "Why do you complain? Who wrote the code?"
Sanders said the United States has a "grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income," noting that Bloomberg "owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans."
While Bloomberg was the new target Wednesday, the debate also marked a major test for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is emerging as the front-runner in the Democrats' nomination fight.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg attacked 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."
He said that the party shouldn't have to choose "between a socialist who thinks capitalism is the root of all evil and the billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power."
The former South Bend, Ind., mayor said the party should instead put forth someone who "is actually a Democrat."
Sanders shot back and said his campaign is trying to give a voice and power to working people "rather than your billionaire campaign contributors."
Buttigieg also called out Klobuchar for failing to name the Mexican president in an interview last week.
Buttigieg said that the Minnesota senator is running for president based on her experience in Washington, but despite her role on committees overseeing border security and trade, she was "not able to speak to literally the first thing, the politics," of the neighboring country by naming Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Klobuchar then asked Buttigieg: "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me, Pete?"
Warren defended Klobuchar and called Buttigieg's argument "unfair."
Warren says it's fair to hold a candidate accountable for their policy or their take on an issue but "missing a name all by itself does not indicate that you do not understand what is going on."
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Longtime establishment favorite Biden, former President Barack Obama's two-term vice president, entered the night at the bottom behind Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
Biden said he would eliminate subsidies for oil and gas businesses and that the heads of fossil fuel companies should be held personally liable for polluting the planet.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, said the United States needs to work with China because people in both nations are at risk from climate change. He talked up his funding of a Sierra Club initiative aimed at closing coal-fired power plants.
Sanders didn't directly address how he'd respond to union workers in Pennsylvania who work in fracking, which Sanders wants to ban. Instead, he spoke broadly about the urgent need to address the climate crisis. Klobuchar said she wouldn't eliminate all fracking but would make sure all permits are carefully reviewed.
All of the candidates support rejoining an international climate agreement that Trump withdrew from.
Bloomberg was pressed on his record in business and allegations of sexual harassment at his company. Several women alleged they were discriminated against and Bloomberg himself created a culture of sexual harassment.
Both Warren and Biden called on him to release women involved in the lawsuits from non-disclosure agreements.
Bloomberg has previously been accused of fostering a hostile work environment for some female employees.
Bloomberg says he has "no tolerance" for such behavior and that he saw the agreements in question as consensual and not up to him to dissolve. He went on to say that none of the agreements "accuse me of doing anything other than, maybe they didn't like a joke I told," a response met with boos from the debate audience.
"They are being muzzled by you and you could release them from that immediately," Warren charged. "Understand this is not just a question of the mayor's character, this is also a question about electability. We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has...[a] drip, drip, drip of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against."
Bloomberg also waded into dangerous territory when he declined to say specifically when he would release his tax returns, declaring "it just takes us a long time."
"Fortunately, I make a lot of money and we do business all over the world," he said, adding that his returns would likely take up thousands of pages. "I can't go to Turbotax!"
Bloomberg says he'll release his tax returns in "a few weeks."
Bloomberg runs a financial data and media company. He is worth an estimated $60 billion.
All the other contenders on stage have released their tax returns.
Klobuchar joked that her and her husband's tax returns are uncomplicated enough that they could use TurboTax. She noted that Trump has refused to disclose his returns.
"I think it's great you've got a lot of money, but I think you've got to come forward," she said.
Klobuchar faced tough questioning of her own. She was asked how minority-group voters should trust her judgment after her handling of the case in which a black teen was sentenced to life after a flawed police investigation.
Klobuchar says she thinks it's important that evidence related to a high-profile murder case she oversaw as Minnesota prosecutor be reviewed by her successors.
Questions about the Minnesota senator's oversight of the case emerged after an Associated Press investigation into the case of Myon Burrell, who was 16 when he was apprehended in the 2002 death of an 11-year-old girl.
Klobuchar said that of the three people convicted in the case, one "was investigated by a journalist and I think it's very important that that evidence come forward."
POWERPOINT AND POST-IT
On health care, Warren said Buttigieg's health care approach is "not a plan, it's a PowerPoint," made up of slogans thought up by consultants. And she's called Klobuchar's plan the equivalent of a "Post-It note."
Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar are advocating for a public option that will allow more people to access Medicare while maintaining private insurance. Warren supports transitioning to a "Medicare for All" system.
Klobuchar hit back, with a reference to the debate being in Las Vegas.
"You don't put your money on a number that's not even on the wheel," she said, adding that Medicare for All does not have the support from most Democratic senators, making it a non-starter.
Biden accused Bloomberg of denigrating Obama's signature health care law by calling it "a disgrace" when it was passed.
Biden said he's the only candidate on the debate stage "who actually got anything done on health care" when he worked to get the Affordable Care Act passed, but "Mike called it a disgrace."
Bloomberg disputed that, saying he is a fan of "Obamacare" and wrote an op-ed praising the plan.
He said he thinks Democrats should build on the plan and not try something new.
Biden again asserted that Bloomberg had criticized the law, saying, "Look it up. Check it out."
Sanders went on the offensive concerning his heart attack last fall.
The 78-year-old quipped that Bloomberg "has two stents, too." Bloomberg shot back, "That was 25 years ago."
Sanders had a heart attack on Oct. 1 and underwent surgery to insert two stents. Bloomberg also had stents inserted but never had a heart attack.
Sanders released three letters from doctors in December saying he was healthy enough for the rigors of the presidency. Some of his rivals, including Buttigieg, have criticized him for not being fully transparent.
On Tuesday, Buttigieg compared him to Trump for not divulging enough about his health.
The debate was set at the Paris Las Vegas hotel on the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, offering the political circus alongside the showgirls, slot machines and glitz that Las Vegas is known for. The casino, which sits directly across the Strip from the Bellagio's famous fountains, features a replica Eiffel Tower out front with legs that extend inside into the casino floor.
As Democrats were clustered inside the casino, outside on the Las Vegas Strip, Republicans hired a mobile electronic billboard truck to drive slowly in front of tourists, flashing a message promoting Trump's reelection.
Information for this article was contributed by Steve Peoples, Alexandra Jaffe, Michelle L. Price and Kathleen Ronayne of The Associated Press; and by Tyler Pager, Jennifer Epstein and Mark Niquette of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 02/20/2020