周三晚上，在拉斯维加斯举行的第九次民主党辩论的几分钟内，迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)成为了明显的输家，他遭到了台上几乎所有候选人的猛烈抨击，而且再也没有恢复过来。伯尼·桑德斯发起了拦截搜身运动，艾米·克洛布查尔谴责他的竞选团队对她的攻击，乔·拜登抨击他作为纽约市长的不完整记录。就连主持人也蜂拥而至。但是没有人比伊丽莎白·沃伦更深刻，他在性别歧视的历史上羞辱了这位亿万富翁。
“我想谈谈我们在和谁竞争，一个称女人为胖女人和马脸女同性恋的亿万富翁，”她在提到1990年关于英国皇室的评论时说，“我不是在说唐纳德·特朗普。我说的是布隆伯格市长。”
这场辩论不可否认的赢家沃伦刚刚开始热身。在爱荷华州和新罕布什尔州的选举结果令人失望的背景下，这场辩论为她提供了一个机会来扭转她日渐衰落的竞选的命运——她做到了。如果今晚我们学到了什么，沃伦是一个进步的资本主义者，你不能简单地抹去。
她是让彭博社承担责任的最有效的候选人，她指出了他的公司利用保密协议来钳制前员工骚扰指控的记录。她在舞台上向布隆伯格施压，要求她释放NDAs中的女性，并看着他做出回应。
“也许他们不喜欢我讲的笑话，”他说，引起观众的喘息。
此外，她强调了在他的市长任期内纽约严厉的“拦截搜身”政策的受害者对人类的影响，批评他的道歉侧重于失败的结果，而不是受害者。
最近几个月，随着进步人士团结在桑德斯的竞选活动周围，沃伦的民调数字一直在下降。当批评者和支持者质疑她的竞选是否有基础设施、资金和动力来利用她今晚的亮点时，沃伦的竞选团队宣布，辩论的前半部分已经成为参议员迄今为止最好的筹资时间。
今晚的辩论充满了混乱和激烈的能量，导致了不太实质性的政策讨论，但更清楚地看到了每一位候选人将如何面对面地表现。由于温和派选民尚未团结在单一候选人周围，观众有机会看到谁真正想要这样，谁可能在与唐纳德·特朗普总统的重量级对决中发挥作用。
桑德斯又一次在辩论中表现出色，并从彭博成为其他候选人的出气筒中获益匪浅。他能够通过呼吁现有的企业福利政策来捍卫“社会主义”的标签，并且没有为他为美国劳动人民而战的运动道歉。当皮特·巴蒂吉格(Pete Buttigieg)指责他的支持者是否骚扰了内华达烹饪联盟的领导层时，桑德斯回应道，“我们得到的联盟支持比你想象的要多，”他将自己支持的现实与围绕初选的基于推特的在线讨论区分开来。
拜登在辩论开始前几个小时就已经准备好与布隆伯格和桑德斯争斗了竞选团队警告记者他是在“咄咄逼人”——但这位前副总统很快就让自己作为辩论旁观者靠边站了。拜登去了哪里？没有候选人支持他。尽管他从上周新罕布什尔州的辩论中获得了新的能量，但他今晚所说的一切都没有表明他将重新获得竞选领先者的地位。拜登仍然过于依赖他的长期记录，而不是为他的总统任期阐明一个明确的理由。
克洛布查尔和巴蒂吉格在舞台上反复交锋，在任何一次交锋中，都没有一个候选人成为明显的赢家。但是，本周早些时候，当克洛布加勒斯特记不起这位墨西哥总统的名字时，她因失态而对其进行了抨击。克劳巴克回应道:“你是想说我是哑巴吗？你在嘲笑我吗，皮特？”
在随后的辩论中，克罗布查进行了反击，批评了巴蒂吉的当选记录，称他在州财政选举中“以20分之差”落败两位候选人都需要在这里表现出色，但他们明显的个人敌意只导致了两次提名。相对于爱荷华州和新罕布什尔州的预期，两位候选人的表现都很好，但在下个月初选进入更大、更多样化的州时，他们需要利用这一势头。目前还不清楚两位候选人的表现是否会在本周末内华达州党团会议前赢得更多支持者。
民主党总统候选人(L-R)前纽约市市长迈克·布隆伯格担任参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦(马萨诸塞州)。)，伯尼·桑德斯参议员。)和前副总统乔·拜登参加了2020年2月19日在内华达州拉斯维加斯举行的民主党总统初选辩论。
但是他用一句话瞄准了桑德斯和布隆伯格
在所有其他候选人在第一轮残酷地与布隆伯格结盟后不久，巴蒂吉格加入了竞争——利用这个机会，他还与他的主要竞争对手桑德斯展开了较量。
Buttigieg说:“从今天起两个星期后，也就是超级星期二的第二天，我们就可以起床了，剩下的候选人只有伯尼·桑德斯和迈克·布隆伯格。”。“让我们提名一个实际上是民主党人的人。我们不应该在一个想烧毁这个政党的候选人和另一个想买断这个政党的候选人之间做出选择。”
桑德斯毫不犹豫地回击道:“也许是时候让这个国家的工人阶级在华盛顿拥有一点权力，而不是让你的亿万富翁竞选捐款人。”
彭博指责桑德斯是共产主义者
布隆伯格针对自称的民主社会主义者的经济政策提案，对桑德斯进行了最激烈的抨击。
这位亿万富翁说:“我想不出有什么方法比听听这段对话更容易让唐纳德·特朗普再次当选。”。“这太荒谬了。我们不会抛弃资本主义。我们试过了。其他国家也尝试过。它被称为共产主义，但它就是不起作用。”
桑德斯认为这些评论是“廉价”的。“我们现在生活在社会主义社会的许多方面，”参议员说。“问题是，正如马丁·路德·金博士提醒我们的那样，我们为富人建立了社会主义，为穷人建立了坚固的个人主义。”
后来，两位候选人就亿万富翁是否应该存在展开了争论。“我们的财富和收入分配荒唐而不道德。迈克·布隆伯格拥有的财富超过了最底层的1.25亿美国人。那是不对的。这是不道德的，”桑德斯说。
“我不能代表所有的亿万富翁，”布隆伯格回应道，“我所知道的是我非常幸运，赚了很多钱，我正在为让这个国家变得更好而付出一切。其中很大一部分也归民主党所有。”
克洛布查尔和巴蒂吉格在移民问题上争吵不休
这些温和派今晚为数不多的实质性交流之一是在移民问题上，两位候选人都在吹捧自己支持移民的立场，同时也在挖掘彼此的记录。
当被问及他们将如何保护这个国家的梦想者时，克洛布查尔说，解决办法在于选举一位新总统，然后再转而宣传她自己的当选能力和支持移民的历史。但是，她不失时机地跳起来抨击自己将英语作为国家语言的投票，以及她对特朗普任命的第一位海关和边境保护专员凯文·麦卡利斯南的支持。
WHO WON THE NINTH DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN NEVADA? ANALYSIS OF THE WINNERS, LOSERS AND HIGHLIGHTS
Michael Bloomberg emerged as the clear loser within minutes of the ninth Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday night as he took heavy fire from nearly every candidate on stage and never recovered. Bernie Sanders launched into stop-and-frisk, Amy Klobuchar rebuked his campaign's attacks on hers, Joe Biden attacked his patchy record as mayor of New York. Even the moderators piled on. But no one cut deeper than Elizabeth Warren, who humiliated the multi-billionaire on his history of sexism.
"I'd like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians," she said referring to comments made in 1990 about the British royal family, "I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg."
Warren, the undeniable winner of this debate, was just getting warmed up. Against a background of disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire, this debate represented an opportunity for her to reverse the fortunes of her fading campaign—and she delivered. If there's one thing we've learned tonight, Warren is one progressive capitalist you cannot simply erase.
She was the most effective candidate in holding Bloomberg to account, calling out his company's record of using nondisclosure agreements to muzzle former employees over harassment allegations. She pressed Bloomberg, on stage, to release the women from the NDAs and watched him flub a response.
"Maybe they didn't like a joke I told," he stated, prompting gasps from the audience.
Additionally, she highlighted the human impact of victims of the draconian "stop-and-frisk" policy in New York under his mayoralty, criticizing his apology as being focused on the failed outcomes, rather than the victims.
Warren's polling numbers have been weakening as progressives rallied around Sanders' campaign in recent months. As critics and supporters questioned whether her campaign has the infrastructure, money and momentum to capitalize on her highlight tonight, Warren's campaign announced that the first half of the debate had become the senator's best hour of fundraising to date.
Tonight's debate had a chaotic, fiery energy which led to less substantive policy discussions but a clearer view of how each candidate would perform in head-to-heads. With moderate voters yet to coalesce around a single candidate, viewers had a chance to see who really wants this and who might be effective in what would be a heavyweight showdown with President Donald Trump.
Sanders produced another solid debate performance and benefited most from Bloomberg acting as a punching bag for the other candidates. He was able to defend the label "socialist" by calling out existing policies of corporate welfare and made no apology for his campaign fighting for the working people of America. When attacked by Pete Buttigieg on whether his supporters harassed the leadership of the Nevada Culinary union, Sanders responded, "We have more union support than you've ever dreamed of," drawing a distinction between the on-the-ground reality of his support and the Twitter-based online discourse surrounding the primary.
Biden arrived ready to tussle with Bloomberg and Sanders—hours before the debate his campaign warned reporters he was going in "aggressive"—but the former vice president quickly sidelined himself as a debate bystander. Where did Biden go? No candidates went for him. Though he carried his newfound energy from last week's New Hampshire debate, nothing he said tonight has indicated he will regain the campaign frontrunner status. Biden is still too reliant on his lengthy record, rather than articulating a clear case for his presidency.
Klobuchar and Buttigieg clashed repeatedly on stage with neither candidate coming out the clear winner in any exchange. Buttgieg attacked Klobuchar for a gaffe made earlier in the week, when she was unable to recall the Mexican president's name. Klobuchar responded "Are you trying to say I'm dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?"
Later in the debate, Klobuchar hit back, criticizing Buttigieg's electability record, saying that he lost the race for state treasurer "by 20 points." Both candidates needed a knockout performance here, but their visible personal animosity only resulted in a double K.O. Both performed well relative to expectations in Iowa and New Hampshire, but needed to build on this momentum as the primary moves into larger, more diverse states over the next month. It's not clear that either candidate delivered a performance that will win over any more supporters ahead of the Nevada caucus this weekend.
Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden participate in the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Buttgieg Takes Aim at Sanders and Bloomberg In One Sentence
Shortly after all the other candidates brutally tag-teamed Bloomberg in the opening round, Buttigieg got in on the action—using the opportunity to also take on Sanders, his leading rival.
"We could wake up two weeks from today, the day after Super Tuesday, and the only candidates left standing will be Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg," Buttigieg said. "Let's put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat. We shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out."
Sanders didn't hesitate in firing back: "Maybe it's time for the working class of this country to have a little bit of power in Washington rather than your billionaire campaign contributors."
Bloomberg Accuses Sanders of Being a Communist
Bloomberg aimed his most fiery shot at Sanders over the self-described democratic socialist's economic policy proposals.
"I can't think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump to get re-elected than listening to this conversation," the billionaire said. "This is ridiculous. We're not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism and it just didn't work."
Sanders dismissed the comments as a "cheap" shot. "We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now," the senator said. "The problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor."
Later, the two candidates sparred over whether billionaires should exist. "We have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. Mike Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans. That's wrong. That's immoral," Sanders said.
"I can't speak for all billionaires," Bloomberg responded, "All I know is I've been very lucky, made a lot of money and I'm giving it all away to make this country better. A good chunk of it goes to the Democratic Party as well."
Klobuchar and Buttigieg Spar Over Immigration
One of the few substantive exchanges between these moderates tonight was over immigration, which saw both candidates touting their pro-immigration stances while also digging at each other's records.
When asked how they would safeguard the country's Dreamers, Klobuchar said the solution lies in electing a new president, before pivoting to touting her own electability and history of support for immigrants. Buttigieg wasted no time leaping to attack her vote to make English the country's national language, and her support for Kevin McAleenan, the first Customs and Border Protection commissioner appointed by Trump.
