DEMS GO AFTER SANDERS
The party’s presidential front-runner faces attacks from other candidates in Tuesday’s debate in South Carolina.
Democrats unleashed a roaring assault against Bernie Sanders and seized on Mike Bloomberg’s past with women in the workplace during a contentious debate Tuesday night that tested the strength of their candidacy in the party’s presidential nomination fight.
As the undeniable Democratic frontrunner, Sanders faced the brunt of the attacks for much of the night, and for one of the few times, fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren was among the critics. The Massachusetts senator pressed the case that she could execute ideas that the Vermont senator could only talk about.
“Bernie and I agree on a lot of things,” she said. “But I think I would make a better president than Bernie.”
A group of moderates, meanwhile, fought to emerge as the chief Sanders alternative.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is seeking a strong win in South Carolina to keep his campaign afloat, argued that only he has the experience to lead in the world. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota repeatedly contended that she alone could win the votes of battleground state moderates. And Pete Buttigieg pointed to Sanders’ selfdescribed 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,” the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., declared.
But the moderates did little to draw separation among themselves, a dynamic that has so far only benefited the Vermont senator. Sanders fought 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 intensity of Tuesday’s forum, with candidates repeatedly shouting 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.
The 10th debate of the 2020 primary season, sponsored by CBS and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, was just four days before South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary and one week before more than a dozen states vote on Super Tuesday. The Democratic White House hopefuls will not stand side by side on the debate stage again until the middle of March. That made Tuesday’s debate likely the last chance for some candidates to save themselves and alter the trajectory of the nomination fight.
Though Sanders was at the center of the attacks, the night was actually something of a high point in his political career. After spending nearly three decades as an agitator who delighted in tearing into his party’s establishment, that very party establishment was suddenly fighting to take him down, a clear sign of his rising status as the leading candidate for the nomination.
Bloomberg also faced sustained attacks that gave him an opportunity to redeem himself after a bad debate debut one week earlier. Warren cut hard at his 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 that he sometimes made comments that were inappropriate.
Bloomberg “cannot earn the trust of the core of the Democratic Party,” Warren said.
But Bloomberg will likely remain a force in the contest even as other candidates may quickly face tough choices about the sustainability of their campaigns. Bloomberg has already spent more than $500 million on a national advertising campaign, and his fortune ensures that he will remain a factor at least through Super Tuesday.
Bloomberg sought to portray a clear contrast with Sanders. He said Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree that Sanders would be the best outcome for the Democrats.
“Vladimir Putin thinks Donald Trump should be president of the United States, and that’s why Russia is helping you get elected, so you lose to him,” Bloomberg said to Sanders.
Last week, Sanders acknowledged that he had been briefed by intelligence officials who said that Russia is attempting to interfere in the elections to benefit him. He responded to Bloomberg on Tuesday with a direct statement for Putin: “Hey, Mr. Putin, if I’m president of the United States, trust me, you’re not going to interfere in any more American elections.”
Buttigieg raised concerns that a Sanders nomination would cost Democrats the House and make it harder to retake the Senate.
“We’re not going to win these critical, critical House and Senate races if people in those races have to explain why the nominee of the Democratic Party is telling people to look at the bright side of the Castro regime,” Buttigieg said.
The South Carolina contest offers the first real look at the influence African-American voters play in the Democrats’ presidential nomination process. Biden is trying to make a big impression in the state, where he was long viewed as the front-runner because of his support from black voters. But heading into Saturday’s primary after three consecutive underwhelming finishes, there were signs that the former vice president’s African-American support may be slipping.
One reason: Tom Steyer. The billionaire activist has been pouring money into AfricanAmerican outreach, which threatens to peel away some of the support Biden badly needs.
Steyer noted Tuesday that he was the only candidate on the stage who supported reparations for descendants of slaves.
There are questions about the Democratic Party’s ability to unify behind a nominee.
Klobuchar perhaps summed up her party’s challenge best: “If we spend the next 10 months tearing our party apart, Donald Trump is going to spend the next four years tearing this country apart.”