Sophia Michaels
Elizabeth Warren was eager to get her jabs in. The moderators at the Las Vegas debate Tuesday night set up a contrast question between front-runner Bernie Sanders and newcomer to the debate stage, billionaire former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. Barely had Sanders begun answering the question about why his revolution was better suited to defeat Donald Trump than Bloomberg’s moderation, than Warren had her hand up, seeking to have a word.
Bloomberg parried Sanders’ opening attack, accusing the Democratic Socialist of seeking to strip hundreds of millions of Americans of the “insurance plans that they love” while claiming (contrary to polling that consistently shows Sanders besting the incumbent) that nominating Bernie would ensure America has “Donald Trump for another four years.”
Warren then seized the mic. She took a mighty rhetorical swing at Blooomberg. And Lordy. She. Did. Not. Miss.
“I’d like to talk about who we are running against, a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians.’” Warren said. “And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about mayor Bloomberg. We are not going to win if we have a nominee with a history of his tax returns of harassing women and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop-and-frisk,” she said.
“Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,” she added, drawing painful parallels between Bloomberg and Trump. Warren has been counted out of the race by many — including by a pollster this week who neglected to include her, polling Amy Klobuchar instead as the only viable woman candidate in the race — then made a clarion argument for her candidacy: “This country has worked for the rich for a long time and left everyone else in the dirt,” she said. “It is time to have a president who will be on the side of working families and be willing to get out there and fight for them. That is why I am in this race and that is how I will defeat Donald Trump.”
Watch the exchange; one of the strongest moments of the nine Democratic debates here:
Warren came out SWINGING at Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/3D8bnvvm4m
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) February 20, 2020
Featured via: Rollingstone
