Bernie Sanders faces onslaught from rivals in chaotic South Carolina debate

The Democratic presidential candidates engaged in a
series of chaotic and fiery exchanges on Tuesday night, in the final debate
before the critical South Carolina presidential primary and Super Tuesday
contests that could represent a make-or-break moment.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner who cruised
to victory in Nevada last week, bore the brunt of criticism from a number of
his centrist rivals, including the former vice-president Joe Biden, the ex-New
York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South
Bend, Indiana.
Buttigieg labelled Sanders a polarizing figure in
the primary and warned of a race between the self-declared Democratic socialist
and Trump, who has already sought to weaponise the spectre of socialism in the
run-up to the November election.
“If you think the last four years has been chaotic,
divisive, toxic, exhausting, imagine spending the better part of 2020 with
Bernie Sanders v Donald Trump,” he said.
The Vermont senator denied his policies were
radical, and acknowledged the heat he attracted, stating wryly: “I’m hearing my
name mentioned a little bit tonight. I wonder why.”
In one of the earliest exchanges, Bloomberg – who is
not on the ballot in South Carolina but is seeking to make gains in the 16
states and territories voting next Tuesday – referenced recent reports to suggest
that Sanders’ campaign was benefiting from Russian interference in the 2020
primary.
“Russia is helping you get elected, so you will lose
to him [Trump]” Bloomberg told Sanders, in an early attempt to recover from his
disastrous first debate performance last week, as members of the audience
jeered.
Addressing his response directly to the Russian
president, Vladimir Putin, Sanders said: “If I’m president of the United
States, trust me, you’re not going to interfere in any more American
elections.”
The South Carolina primary on Saturday marks the
first vote in the deep south and in which African American voters form a
majority of the electorate for the first time. On Super Tuesday – 3 March – the
candidates will be vying for more than a third of the available delegates that
are key to securing the nomination – a high stakes day that has the potential
to propel one candidate to solid frontrunner status and see others drop out.
Biden has long courted voters in the black
community, touting his record as vice-president to America’s first African
American president, Barack Obama. But recent polling has suggested that
Sanders, buoyed by success in a multicultural electorate in Nevada, is the
frontrunner with black voters nationally.
Biden, who holds a slim lead in South Carolina
according to recent polling, said he intended to win in the state on Saturday,
and pledged to nominate an African American woman to the supreme court if
elected. But he also tried to tear strips off Sanders, his closest rival in the
state.
Referencing the 2015 terror attack at Mother Emanuel
AME church, which stands a few dozen feet from the debate stage in downtown
Charleston, Biden pointed to Sanders’ mixed voting record on gun control, and
touted his own 1994 legislation implementing five-day waiting periods for
firearms purchases.
“I’m not saying he [Sanders] is responsible for the
nine deaths [at Mother Emanuel],” Biden said. “But that man [the white
supremacist Dylann Roof] would not have been able to get that weapon with the
waiting period had been what I suggest[ed].”
Sanders initially tried to pivot to criticizing
Biden for his record on trade deals, prompting more boos from the audience,
before saying: “I have cast thousands of votes, including bad votes,” Sanders
said. “That was a bad vote.”
As with much of the debate there was little
follow-up questioning after Sanders’ significant acknowledgement, as moderators
struggled to keep the candidates from interrupting each other, talking over
each other, shouting, and speaking for longer than their assigned time limits.
The Trump campaign quickly seized on the disorder,
issuing a statement saying: “The Democrat party is a hot mess and tonight’s
debate was further evidence that not one of these candidates is serious or can
stand toe-to-toe with President Trump.”
The Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth Warren, a
fellow progressive, also took aim at Sanders, saying the pair agreed on a lot
of things, but that she would be a “better president”.
“Progressives have one shot, and we need to spend it
on a leader who will get something done,” Warren said.
Warren also renewed her attacks on Bloomberg over
the billionaire philanthropist’s treatment of female employees. Warren, who
benefited from a surge in fundraising after her criticism of Bloomberg at last
week’s debate, resurfaced an allegation that he had once told a pregnant
subordinate to “kill it”.
A visibly riled Bloomberg replied: “Categorically
never said it.”
The billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom
Steyer, returning to the debate stage as recent polls place him third in South
Carolina, was also drawn into an angry exchange with Biden, who questioned his
record investing in a private prison company, a move Steyer said he also
regretted.
In a withering put-down, Biden referred to Steyer as
“Tommy come lately” as the billionaire pushed back and argued he had done more
to support minority communities than the former vice-president.
As the debate wound to a close, the candidates began
to move the focus towards more pointed criticism of the Trump administration,
particularly the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Minnesota senator, Amy Klobuchar, criticized the
administration’s funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the US government agency responsible for helping prevent global
outbreaks.
She argued that the president “hasn’t really yet
addressed the nation on this topic” and urged the administration to work on
better quarantine and treatment plans.
Shortly after the debate, Trump, seemingly listening
in to the discussion, tweeted: “CDC and my administration are doing a GREAT job
handling Coronavirus …”