Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018327
US Politics 20202
Las Vegas Debate
DEMOCRATS 2020 ... BLOOMBERG THROWN TO THE WOLVES IN WILDEST DEMOCRATIC DEBATE YET
Peter Burgess
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Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018327 | |||||||||
US Politics 20202 | |||||||||
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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
| DEMOCRATS 2020 BLOOMBERG THROWN TO THE WOLVES IN WILDEST DEMOCRATIC DEBATE YET “I'd like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’” Elizabeth Warren said. “And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump, I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg.” Michael Bloomberg Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders stand on the debate stage. BY MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg made his first appearance on the debate stage Wednesday night—and his fellow competitors were ready to take him on. After a series of largely amicable debates, Wednesday's Nevada debate was a much more combative affair, as Bloomberg's rivals came out swinging against the billionaire who's spent his way to a frontrunner spot in the Democratic race. “I don’t think you look at Donald Trump and say we need someone richer in the White House,” Senator Amy Klobuchar pointed out. Bloomberg was attacked Wednesday on subjects ranging from his failure thus far to release his tax returns—“It just takes us a long time,” Bloomberg claimed—to his controversial “stop and frisk” policy as New York mayor, which specifically discriminated against men of color. “It's not whether he apologized or not, it's the policy. The policy was abhorrent, and it was a violation of every right people have,” former vice president Joe Biden said, pointing out that the Obama administration sent monitors to New York to examine stop and frisk over Bloomberg's objections. “He figured out it was a bad idea after we sent in monitors and said it must stop. Even then he continued the policy.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, as expected, went after Bloomberg’s billionaire status, saying that his extravagant wealth as compared to the majority of Americans is “wrong.” “That’s immoral, that should not be the case,” Sanders said, later noting, “you know Mr. Bloomberg, it wasn’t you that made all that money, maybe some of your workers had a share in it as well.” (Bloomberg defended his wealth in response, saying, “All I know is I’ve been very lucky, made a lot of money, and I’m giving it away.”) Landing the strongest attacks against Bloomberg was Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who, after underwhelming performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, came back swinging on the debate stage with a full-throated admonition of big-money Bloomberg. “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. “Democrats aren't going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop and frisk. ... Understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.” The Massachusetts senator particularly went after Bloomberg for his history of misogynistic comments and refusal to release women who have settled sexual harassment complaints against Bloomberg and other Bloomberg LP employees from non-disclosure agreements, as several have requested. After Bloomberg pointed to his company's high rate of female employment, Warren responded that his defense boiled down to: “I've been nice to some women.” “That just doesn't cut it. The mayor has to stand on his record, and what we need to know is exactly what's lurking out there,” Warren said, calling on Bloomberg to release women from their NDAs. When Bloomberg said that he wouldn't, saying that they were an “agreement between two parties who wanted to keep it quiet”—and that women hadn't “accuse[d] me of doing anything other than maybe a joke I've told”—Warren wouldn't settle for Bloomberg's defense. “The question is, are the women bound and being muzzled by you?” Warren said. “This is not only a question about the mayor's character, this is also a question of electability. We are not gonna beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements, and the drip drip drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against.” Wednesday's Bloomberg pile-on was indicative of a much more argumentative tone overall on the debate stage, as candidates went more pointedly after each other now that voters are heading to the polls. Sanders's opponents went after the current frontrunner for his combative supporters, expensive health care plan, and his rigidity, with Buttigieg noting that on issue after issue, “if you’re not all the way on his side, than you must be for the status quo.” “Let’s put forward somebody who’s actually a Democrat,” Buttigieg said, criticizing both Sanders and Bloomberg. “We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down, and one candidate who wants to buy this party out.” The Indiana mayor also once again repeatedly sparred with fellow centrist Klobuchar, telling her that if her argument that her popularity in Minnesota will translate on the national stage were true, “I would have grown up under the presidency of Walter Mondale.” “I wish everyone was as perfect as you Pete, but let me tell you what it's like to be in the arena,” Klobuchar later told Buttigieg during a conversation about immigration, after he called out Klobuchar's votes for several of Trump's judicial nominees. “You have not been in the arena doing that work. You've memorized a bunch of talking points.” Warren came prepared with specific policy attacks against her non-Bloomberg opponents, saying that Buttigieg's “Medicare for all who want it” plan is a “slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care.” “It's not a plan, it's a PowerPoint,” Warren said. “And Amy's plan is even less. It's like a Post-It note: insert plan here.” (In response, Buttigieg said he's “more of a Microsoft Word guy.”) As Warren fights to stay in the race and make the case for her candidacy as one that can unite the progressive and centrist wings of the party, the Massachusetts senator was particularly eager to call out her rivals’ weaknesses more generally as well. Warren singled out Sanders's “narrow vision” and said voters are “worried about gambling on a revolution that won't bring along a majority of this country,” adding that “Amy and Joe's hearts are in the right place, but we can't be so eager to be liked by Mitch McConnell that we forget how to fight the Republicans.” “Mayor Buttigieg has been taking money from big donors and changing his positions, so it makes it unclear what it is he stands for,” Warren continued. 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