Bloomberg faces barrage of attacks at Democratic presidential debate in Nevad

Michael Bloomberg faced a barrage of attacks at his first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday, as his rivals rushed to criticize the billionaire businessman for his wealth, record on race and history of sexist comments.

Bloomberg seemed nervous and hesitant in a rough debut before a national audience in a debate that gave voters their first unscripted consider the media mogul and self-funding former New York mayor who has surged in polls while spending hundreds of millions of his own dollars on television ads.

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg prearranged to follow Bloomberg, frequently shouting over each other because they vied for attention in the most contentious of the nine Democratic White House debates.

All of the contenders accused Bloomberg of trying to get his way in to the White House and said his record as mayor and a businessman would lead the party to defeat in November.

"We're running against a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-face lesbians," said Warren, a senator from Massachusetts. "And, no, I’m not discussing Donald Trump, I’m discussing Mayor Bloomberg."

"Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another," she added.

Bloomberg has been accused over time of several sexist and misogynist comments, and several lawsuits have already been filed alleging that women were discriminated against at his media company.

He did not react to Warren's comments about his past remarks about women, that have been extracted from a booklet directed at him in 1990 that was reported to be a compilation of his sayings through the years. A campaign spokesman has said that Bloomberg"simply didn't say the items somebody wrote in this gag gift."

Bloomberg, who entered the race in November and is skipping the first four early voting states in February to focus on later nominating contests in March, said he was using his money for a significant cause.

"I’m spending that money to get rid of Donald Trump - the worst president we’ve ever had. And if I can get that done, it will be a great contribution to America and my kids," he said.

INTENSE EXCHANGES

The debate came at a pivotal time, three days before Nevada's presidential caucuses, the 3rd contest in the state-by-state race to discover a challenger to Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

The high stakes were evident in the intensity of the exchanges, with Biden and Warren, specifically, facing the do-or-die task of reigniting their campaigns after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire earlier this month.

Both Warren and Biden, the former vice president, criticized Bloomberg for his treatment of women. Both asked him to invest in releasing women who had signed nondisclosure agreements to stay lawsuits. Bloomberg refused, saying these were made "consensually" with the expectation that they would stay private.

"We will not beat Donald Trump with a guy who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements, and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against," said Warren, who had her most aggressive debate.

Bloomberg said there have been "hardly any" nondisclosure agreements. "Do not require accuse me of anything," he said."Maybe they didn't just like the jokes I told."

Sanders, a progressive senator who has surged to the most notable of polls, criticized Bloomberg's support for "stop-and-frisk" police policies as mayor that "went after African-American and Latino people within an outrageous way. That's not a way you will definitely grow voter turnout."

Biden said Bloomberg hadn't managed New York perfectly during his three terms as mayor and said stop and frisk had thrown "close to 5 million young black men against the wall."

Bloomberg has long struggled with the legacy of the"stop-and-frisk" policy, which encouraged police to avoid and search pedestrians and ensnared disproportionate amounts of blacks and Latinos.

Bloomberg said he was "worried" and "embarrassed" about his support for stop and frisk and that he had apologized for supporting it.

"If we became popular everyone that was wrong off this panel, everyone that was wrong on criminal justice sometime within their careers, there'd be nobody else up here," Bloomberg said.

But his rivals weren't ready to let him off the hook.

"It's not whether you apologize or not, it is the policy. The policy was abhorrent. And it had been actually a violation of each right persons have," Biden said.

After a discussion about Sanders' democratic socialist monetary proposals, Bloomberg said he cannot think of a less strenuous way to get Trump re-elected.

"It’s ridiculous. We’re not going get rid of capitalism. We tried that, other countries tried - it had been called communism and just didn’t work," he said. Sanders called it "a cheap shot."

"The best-known socialist in the united states is undoubtedly a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?" Bloomberg said of Sanders.

"I cannot speak for all billionaires. All I understand is that I am very lucky, made lots of money and I'm giving everything away to create this country better. And a good chunk of it goes to the Democratic Party as well."

Trump was happy to inject himself in to the debate pile-on of Bloomberg, telling supporters at a rally in Phoenix: "I hear he's getting pounded tonight."

The Nevada caucuses will be the first in a state with a more diverse population after contests in predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire. Those first contests produced a split verdict, with Buttigieg, 38, the moderate former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, edging Sanders in Iowa, and Sanders narrowly beating Buttigieg in New Hampshire.

Bloomberg, pressed on when he'd release his taxation statements, said these were complicated but he was focusing on it and hoped to take action soon. "Pay them overtime and take action," Warren said.

"I wish it was that easy," Bloomberg said. "I cannot head to Turbo Tax"