All against one. The main favorite of the Democratic primaries Bernie Sanders fell under the fire of his rivals on Tuesday, who assaulted him on several fronts in the opening of a crucial debate in the race to win the party's nomination and challenge Donald Trump in November. Sanders, who knocked out the competition in Nevada, could widen an insurmountable gap during Super Tuesday, when fourteen states will vote on the same day on Tuesday March 3, allocating nearly a third of the delegates at stake in the primary.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg opened the ball by claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin was helping Bernie Sanders. "Vladimir Putin thinks that Donald Trump should be president of the United States and that is why Russia helps you to be elected, so that you lose (then) against him", launched the former mayor of New York to Bernie Sanders. He was referring to information from the Washington Post which said last week that the independent senator was the target of Moscow's interference in his favor. At the time like Tuesday evening, Bernie Sanders reacted by warning Putin against a new attempt to influence the American election.
Pete Buttigieg, who wants to embody a centrist alternative to Joe Biden, has taken over. "If you think the past four years have been chaotic, toxic, tiring and have divided (the country), imagine 2020 with Bernie Sanders facing Donald Trump." The young elected official criticized the senator from Vermont for being "radical".
Unclear funding for its health reform
Former Vice President Joe Biden went on to criticize Bernie Sanders for his past positions on firearms, in controversial votes in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate.
Like him, several moderate candidates also attacked the self-proclaimed "socialist" on the funding deemed too vague of his program, in particular his proposal for a deep reform of universal health insurance.
Playing its survival in the race after three poor results, progressive senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, threw herself into the fray on this point. "I digged, I worked (to explain how to finance his program, note). And then Bernie's team got into me because of that, "she accused. "Progressives only have one chance" to win this election "and we have to play it on a leader who will know how to get things done," she said.
Bernie Sanders insisted that polls gave him a win over Republican Donald Trump.
The senator, who relies only on funding from small donors, also pinned Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg directly. The Americans "do not want the candidates to rush to see billionaires to find huge funding".
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At 78, Sanders is so far the big winner of these primaries, after winning Nevada on Saturday, far ahead of all his rivals. His advance exploded the divide within the party between supporters of the "socialist" senator and supporters of a more central speech supposed to be able to gather more voters to beat Donald Trump on November 3.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg got off to a firmer start on Tuesday after a failed first appearance last week. He faced heavy fire from Elizabeth Warren, who recalled accusations of sexism weighing on him and his huge business, giant of financial information.
Third in the national polls, the 78-year-old former mayor of New York will enter the race during "Super Tuesday" after having drawn record amounts of money from his personal fortune to campaign. His television commercials were broadcast just before and during the first break of the debate.
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