The Democratic Party’s presidential candidates fell to the billionaire and ex-Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, who is participating in the debate for the first time, at another debate on Wednesday.
The debate, which takes place in Nevada and is broadcast by NBC, involves six candidates: Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobushar, former vice president Joe Biden, former mayor of South Bend in Indiana Pete Buttidzic and businessman Michael Bloomberg.
“We cannot afford to trade one arrogant billionaire for another”, – said Elizabeth Warren, referring to President Donald Trump and Bloomberg.
According to her, Bloomberg is “a billionaire who calls people fat chicks and lesbians with horse faces”. Warren recalled that Bloomberg has been accused of insulting women and that his anti-crime policies have contributed to discrimination against racial minorities.
“We can’t win if our nominee in the past hid taxes, harassed women or supported racist politics”, – Warren said.
Pete Buttidzic joined the criticism, equating Bloomberg with Bernie Sanders. “Let’s put forward someone who’s actually a Democrat. We don’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn down the whole party and another candidate who wants to buy up the party,” said Buttidzic. Bloomberg is a former Republican and Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont, although they both claim to be nominated by Democrats.
According to Buttidzic, Sanders said capitalism is the root of all evils, and Bloomberg believes money is the source of any power.
Bernie Sanders said Bloomberg would not be able to win the election because he could not get the support of a broad coalition of voters.
“Mr. Bloomberg set up a ‘stop and search’ policy in New York City that was most outrageously directed against African Americans and Hispanics”, – Sanders said.
During Bloomberg’s years as mayor, crime in New York City has decreased, but Bloomberg’s opponents believe it was during the anti-crime campaign that numerous illegal searches of African Americans and other minorities took place.
Bloomberg ignored these accusations and said that all efforts should now focus on preventing Donald Trump from being re-elected. He also said he did not believe that Sanders could challenge Trump.
Elizabeth Warren led the subsequent attacks on Bloomberg. She demanded that Bloomberg confirm the out-of-court agreements with the women he allegedly insulted, and then paid them money to remain silent and sealed the deals in court. Bloomberg said there were such agreements, but refused to name a number. Warren’s demand for the agreements to be renounced and for the women to speak, Bloomberg replied.
“We are not going to end these agreements because they were consensual”, – Bloomberg said, causing the audience to shout disapproval.
Bloomberg was also urged to release his tax return. The businessman said it would “take a long time”, – which caused a new round of disapproval. Eventually, Bloomberg said he could release his declaration “in a few weeks”.
Amy Clobouchard said so: “We’ve heard that before,” hinting at incumbent President Trump, who also failed to release his declaration.
Bloomberg has missed the primary elections in Iowa and New Hampshire and is counting on the primaries in February and March. He spent about $340 million of his 50 billion on his campaign.