Democratic primary: Bloomberg under the fire of its rivals for its first debate

Text by: Eric de Salve Follow

For his first televised debate, Michael Bloomberg faced exchanges of rare intensity. On the Las Vegas scene just before the Nevada caucus on Saturday, his primary rivals did not spare the billionaire, criticizing him for his fortune and summoning him to explain his often embarrassing past. Faced with a barrage of questions, the former mayor of New York appeared ill-prepared and destabilized.

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From our correspondent in San Francisco,

From the first seconds of the debate, Michael Bloomberg takes the blows of his five rivals. It is the favorite of the primary Bernie Sanders who launches the charge by denouncing the "stop-and-frisk", this policy of arrest with systematic search of the blacks imposed by Bloomberg when he was mayor of New York.

" Mr. Bloomberg's New York" Stop and Frisk "policy attacked blacks and Latinos in an outrageous way. This is not how we will mobilize the voters, "lamented the senator from Vermont.

No sooner does Bloomberg speak again to say that Sanders has no chance of winning against Trump than Elizabeth Warren launches another salvo against him on the charges of sexual harassment of which he is the subject. “ I would like to talk about our opponent. A billionaire who treats women as "fat lesbians with mare heads". And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump, I'm talking about Michael Bloomberg, she laughed to the laughter of the audience. Democrats will not win with a candidate who has a history of hiding his tax records of sexual harassment and racist politics . ”

In the room, it is astonishment because none of the previous eight Democratic debates had been so animated. However, this was Michael Bloomberg's first debate, a crucial test for the candidate in the race for only three months and in full swing in the polls thanks to his hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements. A big oral donation the billionaire comes out a big loser in the general opinion of the American media.

Lots of things can happen on March 3, Super Tuesday, where there will be 14 states at once that will rule. But from what I see, I think Sanders is in a good position to keep going.

James Cohen, professor at Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle University

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• United States
• USA elections 2020

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