5 Takeaways From The Nevada Democratic Presidential Debate
The Democratic presidential candidates didn’t come to the debate Wednesday in Las Vegas to be nice.
The feistiest debate of the 2020 presidential election cycle came three days before the Nevada caucuses, and it’s understandable why. The first two contests of the primary race, in Iowa and New Hampshire, were a wash. And in two weeks, a third of all the delegates in the Democratic primary will be decided in one day, likely sealing the fate of most of the candidates in the race.
There were six presidential candidates on the debate stage in Nevada: former Vice President Joe Biden, billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Each one still sees a path to the White House, but the clock is ticking.
It was Bloomberg’s first Democratic debate. The former Republican New York City mayor made it on the debate stage after the Democratic Party changed the qualification rules to focus more on poll numbers instead of grassroots donations (Bloomberg is self-funding). From the get-go, the other Democrats on the stage made it clear Bloomberg wasn’t getting a first-timer’s free pass.
“So 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 in her first remark of the night.
But then again, the candidates weren’t giving any of their fellow competitors a free pass either. Warren went after just about everyone on stage — twice over. Buttigieg seemed to have it out for Sanders and Klobuchar. And Biden and Sanders took their turns punching at Bloomberg, like the rest of them.
Here are five takeaways from Wednesday’s debate:
Bloomberg took a punch. And another punch. And then another one. And another one.
People of color, women and his exorbitant...
