On the first weekend of early voting in the Nevada caucuses, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders came out swinging – at each other, but also at Michael Bloomberg.
“$60bn can buy you a lot of advertising,” Biden told NBC’s Meet the Press in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, about the former New York mayor’s fortune and massive spending in the Democratic primary.
“But it can’t erase your record.”
Bloomberg is not competing in Nevada but targeting instead the Super Tuesday states which vote on 3 March. As he has risen in the polls – as Biden has faltered as the standard-bearer of the party’s moderate wing – he has attracted increasing attacks.
This week, Bloomberg has been confronted with past comments about stop-and-frisk policing policy which many deemed racist, questions over his analysis of the 2008 financial crisis and, on Saturday, a bombshell Washington Post report on his past comments about women and minorities while at the helm of his eponymous company.
Bloomberg reacted to the Post story by releasing testimony from female employees and saying: “As I’ve demonstrated throughout my career, I will always be a champion for women in the workplace.”
Speaking in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Sanders said Bloomberg implemented “racist policies like stop-and-frisk” and opposed the minimum wage and higher taxes on the wealthy during the Obama administration.
“The simple truth is that Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump,” Sanders said.
On NBC, Biden said: “There’s a lot to talk about with Michael Bloomberg. You all are going to start focusing on him like you have on me … the last six months. You’re going to focus on him. His position on issues relating to the African American community, from stop-and-frisk to the way he talked about Obama.
“On several issues, like guns, he was a real ally. He was a real ally. But if you notice, he wouldn’t even endorse Barack in 2008. He wouldn’t endorse him. You know, he endorsed Bush. He endorsed, you know, the Republican before that. All of a sudden he’s his best buddy. You know … he would not endorse him.
“You take a look at the stop-and-frisk proposals … You take a look at what he’s done relative to the African American community. I’m anxious to debate Michael on the issues relating to, you know, what we’re going to face in Super Tuesday.”
Bloomberg ran for mayor of New York as a Republican before becoming an independent. Self-funding his run for the Democratic nomination, he is attracting support from the centre of the party including, as the Guardian revealed on Saturday, prominent supporters of Obama.
African American voters form a key bloc in the Democratic primary which will come firmly into play in South Carolina, the next state to vote after Nevada. Bloomberg and another billionaire, Tom Steyer, have begun to make inroads but in his NBC interview, Biden claimed “overwhelming support”.
“You can’t take it for granted,” he said. “Last time we ran it was basically taken for granted. I’m the only one who has the record and has the background and has the support. They know me. They know who I am.”
Biden told NBC he would have “to do really well” in South Carolina and added: “We’re just getting to the meat of getting to the number of delegates you need to be able to win this election. And I’m confident we’re going to be in good shape.”
Regarding Nevada, he took aim at Sanders over attacks by some supporters of the Vermont senator against female leaders of the Culinary Union, a key source of Democratic votes in a state dominated by the service and hospitality industries, which came out against Sanders’ Medicare for All healthcare plan.
Sanders issued a statement condemning the attacks but Biden said: “He may not be responsible for it but he has some accountability …
“You know me well enough to know if any of my supporters did that, I’d disown them. Flat disown them. The stuff that was said online, the way they threatened these two women who are leaders in that Culinary Union. It is outrageous.
“…I invite anybody to go and take a look, the things they said, the vicious, malicious, misogynistic things they said. The threats they put out. And to say ‘I disassociate’ is one thing. Find out who the hell they are, if any of them work for me. Fire them. Find out. See what’s going on.”
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