Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday endured a punishing assault in his debut US Democratic presidential debate from rivals who savaged him for parachuting in late and throwing astronomical amounts of money at the race.
The Las Vegas showdown came at a tense time in the party’s nomination race, with leftist firebrand US Senator Bernie Sanders coalescing as the front-runner and some challengers fighting for survival.
US media magnate Bloomberg found himself targeted from the start, as candidates from Sanders to former US vice president Joe Biden impugned the man whose sudden prominence in polling has scrambled the race to defeat US President Donald Trump.
Photo: Reuters
“Understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,” US Senator Elizabeth Warren said of Bloomberg. “Democrats are not 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.”
Sanders hit Bloomberg hard on his vast wealth at a time of “grotesque” income inequality in the US.
“Mike Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans,” Sanders said. “That’s immoral.”
All eyes were on Bloomberg’s first appearance on the debate stage after spending hundreds of millions of US dollars on campaign advertising.
He endured a very public vetting and struggled to highlight his roles as a problem solver, businessman and city manager.
He found himself on the defensive when pressed to explain sexual harassment claims against him and employees, his delay in releasing his taxes and more.
Political analyst Aaron Kall of the University of Michigan said that Bloomberg proved “really weak” in the face of the onslaught.
“It’ll be interesting to see ... whether that’s disqualifying for a lot of people that have recently gone on his side,” Kall said.
Bloomberg at one point managed to push back against Sanders, saying that if the self-declared democratic socialist becomes the nominee, “we will have Donald Trump for another four years.”
Trump himself was dismissive of Bloomberg’s performance.
“He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent. If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will,” Trump said on Twitter.
While Sanders and other White House hopefuls have spent months campaigning, Bloomberg jumped late into the contest.
He is going all in on so-called Super Tuesday on March 3, when 14 states, including California and Texas, vote on choosing a Democratic nominee.
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