Rivals in big effort to derail frontrunner Sanders
Democrats unleashed a roaring assault against Bernie Sanders’ electability and seized on Mike Bloomberg’s past with women in the workplace in a raucous debate yesterday that tested the strength of the two men leading their party’s presidential nomination fight.
Sanders, his status as the Democratic front-runner undeniable, faced the brunt of the attacks for much of the night.
Pete Buttigieg, mired among the moderates fighting to emerge as the chief Sanders’ alternative, seized on Sanders’ self-described democratic socialism and his recent comments expressing admiration for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s push for education.
‘‘I am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to
Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s,’’ Buttigieg declared.
Sanders lashed back throughout the night, pointing to polls that showed him beating the Republican president and noting all the recent attention he’s gotten: ‘‘I’m hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. I wonder why?’’
The new wave of infighting came as Democrats met for the party’s 10th – and perhaps most consequential – debate of the 2020 primary season. Yesterday’s forum, sponsored by CBS and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, came just four days before South Carolina’s first-inthe-South primary and one week before more than a dozen states vote on Super Tuesday.
The intensity of yesterday’s clash, with candidates repeatedly yelling over each other, reflected the reality that the Democrats’ establishment wing is quickly running out of time to stop Sanders’ rise.
Even some critics, Bloomberg among them, conceded that Sanders could build an insurmountable delegate lead as soon as next week.
Even Sanders’ ideological ally, Elizabeth Warren, questioned the Vermont senator’s ability to lead the nation. ‘‘Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I would make a better president than Bernie,’’ Warren said in one of her few swipes at Sanders in recent weeks.
Bloomberg also faced sustained attacks that gave him an opportunity to redeem himself after a bad debate debut one week earlier.
Warren saved her fiercest attacks for the New York billionaire. She cut hard at Bloomberg’s record as a businessman, bringing up reports of one particular allegation that he told a pregnant employee ‘‘to kill it,’’ a reference to the woman’s unborn child. Bloomberg fiercely denied the allegation, but acknowledged he sometimes made comments that were inappropriate.
Bloomberg was steadier on his feet yesterday, although it was unclear whether the performance would be enough to revive his stalled presidential campaign.
Joe Biden was also looking to make a big impression in South Carolina, where he was long viewed as the unquestioned frontrunner because of his support from black voters. – AP