Nevada Democratic debate: February 19, 2020

Early reports suggest a surprising upset of sorts in the Nevada caucuses — Culinary Union members broke from their leadership and caucused in wide numbers for Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to longtime Nevada journalist Jon Ralston.

In recent weeks, Sanders — running as a champion of labor — has been dealing with a scandal involving the Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165. Union leaders released an informational flyer critical of his Medicare-for-all plan that stated Sanders wanted to take away Culinary Union members’ health care. Union leaders faced very public harassment from some claiming to be Sanders supporters.

In a stunning moment of the Democratic debate on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren confronted former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg directly and repeatedly about nondisclosure agreements his past employees agreed to sign regarding allegations of a hostile work environment.

Warren and others have been pushing for Bloomberg to release employees of these NDAs — which prevent them from speaking out publicly about alleged experiences with sexism and harassment — for months. And she ramped up the pressure on Wednesday, following up on a question initially raised by moderator Hallie Jackson.

As the fiery Democratic debate in Nevada raged on Wednesday night, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) began fundraising at a blistering pace.

Warren, in particular, lit up the stage in Las Vegas. As Vox’s Emily Stewart noted, the appearance of multibillionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg brought back the Warren who started the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and promised to leave a legacy that meant “plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor” in the agency’s creation.

Protesters from RAICES, a prominent immigrant rights group, interrupted former Vice President Joe Biden’s closing remarks during Wednesday’s Democratic debate, chanting “No kids in cages!” and “Don’t look away!”

The protesters also yelled, “You deported 3 million people!” in reference to the record-high deportations that occurred during Biden’s time as vice president, for which advocates called former President Barack Obama the “deporter in chief”:

Turns out Mike Bloomberg is exactly what Elizabeth Warren needed to break through in the 2020 Democratic primary. And he’s not just a foil for her on the campaign trail — this is something she believes in, and it shows.

Warren was quick to attack the billionaire at Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Nevada, noting his Trump-like history of calling women “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians.” And the Massachusetts Democrat did not relent. She went after his history on stop-and-frisk policing as New York City’s mayor. She called him out for refusing to release from nondisclosure agreements women who have accused him or his company of harassment and discrimination. Overall, it’s clear that Bloomberg is the one candidate she absolutely, positively does not want to be the Democratic nominee.

Not only has Mike Bloomberg spent a lot of money on buying TV airtime, the ads his team has made for him are generally really good. If you knew him primarily through those ads, plus a vague sense that he seemed to be a popular mayor of a big city and made a lot of money running some kind of business, then it’s easy to see why you’d be impressed by his campaign.

What we saw on the debate stage in Nevada Wednesday night is a reality New Yorkers have long been aware of: the man is a wooden charisma vacuum with no natural talent for campaigning.

The Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday night came at an important, even pivotal, time in the primary. Bernie Sanders’s strong results in Iowa and New Hampshire, Joe Biden’s national decline, and Bloomberg’s ad-fueled rise have shaken up the race — and everyone’s looking to take advantage.

The result was two of the most heated hours of the primary, starting with the opening criticisms of billionaire Mike Bloomberg. The feisty tone never really let up, leading to a series of aggressive attacks from one candidate to another rarely seen in the eight previous debates.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar admitted during Wednesday night’s Democratic debate that she couldn’t name the Mexican president when pressed by a reporter from Telemundo last week — a slip-up that former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg used to question her overall qualifications for office.

On February 13, Telemundo reporter Guadalupe Venegas asked Klobuchar, “Who is the president of Mexico?” after a candidate forum ahead of the Nevada caucuses.

At the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mike Bloomberg took a lot of heat, Elizabeth Warren looked feisty, and Bernie Sanders started to get the frontrunner treatment from his competitors.

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, was the target early and often for the other Democratic candidates; they attacked him for his billions of dollars in wealth, the sexual harassment allegations he’s faced, and his record as mayor, particularly his continuation of the stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately affected nonwhite New Yorkers. Warren was his most relentless foil, going after him again and again on a range of subjects. Sanders faced plenty of scrutiny, too, from his opponents and from the debate moderators, befitting his status as the tentative frontrunner with voting finally underway.

Elizabeth Warren has no time for Mike Bloomberg. Are you even a little surprised?

The Massachusetts Democrat, who has relished fights with billionaires throughout her campaign, wasted no time in taking on the former New York City mayor at Wednesday night’s debate in Las Vegas. Even though the first questions went to Bernie Sanders and Bloomberg, Warren was eager to jump in, and when she did, she landed a well-practiced hit.

With early voting already underway in Nevada and the primary race still fluid, there could be more than a few fireworks when 2020 Democrats take the debate stage again.

The ninth Democratic debate of the primary takes place this Wednesday, February 19, at 9 pm ET at the Paris Theater in Las Vegas. It will be hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, Noticias Telemundo, and the Nevada Independent, and will be moderated by a panel of five journalists from those outlets.

Five journalists, including representatives of NBC News and the Nevada Independent, will moderate the ninth Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday, February 19.

They are NBC News chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, Noticias Telemundo senior correspondent Vanessa Hauc, and Nevada Independent founder Jon Ralston.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is now the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election, according to recent nationwide polls.

Since climate change is likely to come up at Wednesday night’s debate in Nevada (where he also leads a recent poll), it’s worth reviewing what Sanders has said about one of his most key issues.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar had surprisingly strong second- and third-place finishes in New Hampshire’s primary election on Tuesday. But if they hope to beat current frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders, they’re going to have to make a lot of headway in the next couple states that hold primary contests.

Nevada will be the next state to vote — technically, caucus — in the Democratic primary on Saturday, February 22. RealClearPolitics’ average of the polls in Nevada has former Vice President Joe Biden at first with 21 percent of the vote, Sanders at second with 17.5 percent, and Buttigieg and Klobuchar lagging far behind at 7 and 3 percent respectively.

With New Hampshire’s primary voting now complete, the next contest for the Democratic presidential contenders will be the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, February 22, at noon Pacific time.

But will these caucuses turn out to be a disaster like Iowa’s did?

Democratic debates are hitting rapid-fire as the 2020 primary unfolds. Next up: Wednesday, February 19, in Las Vegas. And given how rapidly the race has shifted after voting in Iowa and New Hampshire, the stakes are going to be high.

The Democratic National Committee’s scheme for the debates in January and February is tied to the order of primary voting. Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, there was a debate in Des Moines, and before the New Hampshire primaries, a debate in Manchester. Now, we have the Wednesday Las Vegas debate and the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, February 22, and then a debate in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday, February 25, before the primaries in the state on Saturday, February 29.