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Maanvi Singh in Las Vegas

Mike Bloomberg comes under fire in most brutal Democratic debate yet – as it happened

Debate summary

That’s all from me for tonight. Here’s how the night played out:

  • Elizabeth Warren made a strong showing, criticizing rivals with well-prepared remarks. Her campaign reported record fundraising during the debate.
  • Facing his opponents for the first time on the debate stage, Mike Bloomberg found himself fending off attacks from every angle. The candidates questioned his record on race and policing, as well allegations that he encouraged a hostile work environment for women.
  • Bernie Sanders, who is leading in polls, cruised through. He briefly faced criticism over his supporters’ online attacks and said he disapproved of such behavior and disowned those who acted inappropriately.
  • Moderates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were at each other’s throats vyying to lead the middle lane.
  • Joe Biden generally failed to breakthrough.

Updated

Who won the debate? The Guardian’s opinion writers weigh in:

Opinion: Bloomberg came under fire, and flopped

Nathan Robinson says Mike Bloomberg was “ill-prepared, uncharismatic, and unlikable”.

The other candidates ran rings around him. Elizabeth Warren sank her teeth in early, interrupting Bloomberg’s opening statement to point out how his long history of sexist comments about women made him a lot like Donald Trump. Warren landed even more brutal blows later in the debate, when she challenged Bloomberg to release women from the non-disclosure agreements his company had forced them to sign in sexual harassment lawsuits. Bloomberg mumbled some lame excuse about how the agreements were consensual, but was clearly caught off-guard, and Warren wouldn’t let the issue go.

Bloomberg looked feeble, and after the debate some Democratic bigwigs were already reportedly concluding that “Bloomberg isn’t the answer.”

Read the full comment piece here:

Updated

Opinion: Bernie Sanders is cruising towards the Democratic nomination. But can he win?

Reflecting on tonight’s debate, Richard Wolffe says, “We have officially reached the Hunger Games stage of this Democratic primary season.”

There’s a reason why the Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday turned into such an epic Donnybrook. It’s called the primary calendar, which is inexorably counting down to the Super Tuesday contests in less than two weeks.

At that point, one of the candidates on stage will emerge with a delegate lead that puts an end to all the quadrennial talk of a brokered convention. At this point, that candidate looks like Bernie Sanders.

In the meantime, his five rivals on the debate stage have engaged in an entirely delusional sideshow of mutual annihilation.

Read the full comment piece here:

Updated

There were lots of disagreements on Wednesday’s debate stage in Las Vegas, but one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the debate marked the most intense and combative one of the primary cycle. Bloomberg went after Sanders, Buttigieg went after Klobuchar, and Warren pretty much went after everyone.

Here’s our early analysis ...

Bloomberg under attack from the outset

Bloomberg’s rivals challenged the former New York Mayor from the outset, critiquing his legacy on stop-and-frisk, reports of past sexist remarks, and the non-disclosure agreements several women at his company have signed while settling lawsuits.

“Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,” Warren said, comparing Bloomberg to Donald Trump.

Warren made a fiery comeback

Having posted disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire, Warren needed a strong performance. She came out swinging, criticizing her rivals with well prepared remarks. Here’s how she ripped through the healthcare plans of her rivals earlier in tonight’s debate:

She also landed one of the punchiest attacks on Bloomberg, bringing the attention to his history of derogatory remarks about women:

Pete and Amy appeared out to destroy each other

Both midwestern candidates are competing in a crowded central lane, and tore each other down near the end of the debate. “You memorized a bunch of talking points,” Klobuchar said, telling the former mayor he has not been “in the arena”.

Buttigieg responded: “I’m used to senators telling mayors that senators are more important. You don’t have to be in Washington to matter.”

Earlier in the evening, Buttigieg had criticized Klobuchar, for forgetting the name of the president of Mexico, she responded: “Are you trying to say that I’m dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?”

And Bernie once again sailed through

Amid the attacks on Bloomberg and the rivalry between Buttigieg and Klobuchar, Sanders faced relatively little scrutiny.

What a debate that was. Here’s how people have been responding to it online, with the battles between the candidates drawing particular attention (and in some cases delight):

While Warren went in on Bloomberg, whose policies and record stand in sharp contrast to hers, she didn’t take on front-runner Bernie Sanders as much. Her surrogates brushed off questions as to why.

“It’s about showing who can bring together that coalition,” said Allison Stephens, a DNC committeewoman from Nevada. Warren can bring “people who look like me and people who look like Nevada together,” she said, adding, “And I happen to be a millennial of color.”

Though Sanders currently had the most support from young people and people of color, Stevens said Warren has shown she has the “fighting spirit” required to beat Donald Trump in the general election.

Updated

Here are the final tallies for each candidate’s speaking time tonight, with Elizabeth Warren coming out top, followed closely by Amy Klobuchar:

Castro — the who has been a surrogate for Elizabeth Warren — said the Massachusetts senator had “won the debate, hands down.”

“She showed why she’s the best person to take on Donald Trump,” Castro said, emphasizing Warren’s sparring with Mike Bloomberg.

Bloomberg “was completely exposed and it was obvious the whole night,” Castro said.

Updated

Democrats’ closing statements were marked by a dramatic intervention, when protesters erupted in the middle of Joe Biden’s final remarks.

Looks like those protesters were immigrant rights activists, who lamented the lack of discussion around immigration during the debate.

Here’s video of the moment.

The immigrant rights group Raices claimed responsibility for the protest afterwards.

Updated

Should billionaires exist? This is a question the candidates have been made to grapple with tonight.

While Bernie Sanders, whose tweet last year inspired the question, is firmly on the side of getting rid of billionaires, he’s the only one onstage who supports the idea. But not all viewers are so against it:

Updated

The debate is wrapping up, and candidates are making their closing arguments. As Amy Klobuchar put it, “This has been quite a debate.”

Klobuchar: “I wish everyone was as perfect as you”.

Defending her record, she said to Buttigieg, “You’ve memorized a bunch of talking points, and a bunch of things,” after listing off immigration reform legislation she’s worked on as senator.

There doesn’t seem to be much love lost between the two moderate contenders tonight.

United We Dream, which advocates for immigrant rights, weighed in:

Updated

Pete Buttigieg is once again trying to sell himself as the best middle ground. “Mayor Bloomberg thinks he can buy this election, he said. Senator Sanders wants to burn the house down.”

He’s going after fellow moderate Amy Klobuchar on her record on immigration, breaking into a bit of Spanish.

Updated

Elizabeth Warren is coming out swinging against her opponents – having name-checked nearly all of them as she criticizes their campaign tactics and healthcare plans.

Warren used her first answer to call out Mike Bloomberg for reportedly making sexist comments and using his personal fortune to bankroll his campaign, and she later criticized Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders for their healthcare plans. Warren has seen her polling numbers slump in recent weeks, and her allies have complained that the media has covered her campaign unfairly since her third-place finish in Iowa. Klobuchar was able to turn in a much-better-than-expected showing in New Hampshire after a widely praised (and combative) debate performance earlier this month, and Warren may be hoping to replicate that success tonight.

Updated

Buttigieg failed to address the substance of the question that referenced his award-winning high school essay: Why does he lag in support among young people. While Buttigieg has drawn in many older, white supporters, Sanders has by far won over young people. Polls show

Trump joins in attacks on Bloomberg

The president is apparently keeping tabs on the debate tonight, even as he stands at a podium in Arizona, where he’s in the middle of a rally.

“Now they have a new member of the crew, Mini Mike,” Trump said, referencing the former New York mayor’s 5ft8in stature. “No boxes, we call him no boxes.”

“I hear he’s getting pounded tonight. I hear they’re pounding him,” he added, accusing Bloomberg of “buying” his candidacy.

The two wealthy New Yorkers have been trading barbs for the past week, with the president calling the former mayor a “loser” and Bloomberg describing the president as a “barking clown”.

Candidates have aggressively targeted Bloomberg since the debate’s opening, keeping the spotlight on his stop and frisk policy as well as his history of misogynistic insults. Warren hit Bloomberg with a particularly cutting remark when she said: “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

“Let’s put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat,” said Buttigieg.

Updated

“I was into Bernie before it was cool,” said Pete Buttigieg, responding to a question about his past admiration of the Vermont senator and his policies. Buttigieg won an award for an essay about Sanders that he wrote while in high school. But the camaraderie was short-lived.

Sanders and Buttigieg quarreled whether the country is better off with revolutionary change, or moderation.

Updated

In case you missed it, here’s the tense moment Amy Klobuchar asked Pete Buttigieg if he was calling her “dumb”, after he attacked her for not knowing the name of the Mexican president during an interview:

Updated

Sanders retorted that Bloomberg’s brandishing of the communism descriptor was “a cheap shot.” In his zone, railing against the 1%, Sanders said: “We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

Bloomberg hit back, “It’s ridiculous, we’re not going to throw out capitalism.” He jabbed Sanders on the fact that the Vermont senator has three homes and recently became a millionaire himself.

Updated

Mike Bloomberg asked if he should exist

Moderator Chuck Todd asked, “Mayor Bloomberg, should you exist?”

“Should you have earned that much money?”

Multibillionaire Bloomberg, of course, responded: “Yes,” adding that he was “giving it away” to make the country better. Contrasting himself with progressive Sanders and Warren, who endorse much higher taxes on the ultra-rich, Bloomberg said the country doesn’t need “communism”.

Updated

Now Bloomberg is addressing his previous comments that scapegoated the end of racist redlining practices for the financial crisis. Redlining “is practiced everywhere and we have to cut it out”, he said, once again brushing away his past comments and policies.

Updated

Here’s how long each candidate has spoken so far tonight, according to the New York Times’ live tracker. It’s worth pointing out that Elizabeth Warren came in fifth at the end of the last debate.

Speaking times for each Democratic candidate

And according to Twitter’s Nick Pacilio, these are the most tweeted about candidates so far:

Updated

Elizabeth Warren, who just chimed in with a reminder that she’s got plans to promote environmental justice, is seeing a surge in fundraising, according to her campaign. During the debate, Warren’s campaign had the best hour of fundraising to date.

My colleague Oliver Milman makes a thoughtful point: Why are questions about climate change during the Democratic debates so often framed in the economic context?

This was the memorable moment Elizabeth Warren went after Mike Bloomberg’s record on women after the businessmen tried to tout his accomplishments. It drew a strong reaction from the billionaire:

The fight over Nevada’s culinary union

Nevada’s powerful culinary union took center stage earlier in the evening when candidates attacked Sanders over the union’s criticism of his healthcare plan and reports that Sanders supporters harassed union officials as a result.

Here’s some background context from my colleague Mario Koran …

The powerful hospitality workers union in Nevada, which has declined to endorse a candidate head of the caucuses, recently circulated a flier criticizing Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposal. The flier claimed Sanders would “end Culinary Healthcare” and “require Medicare for All” if elected president. The flyer took a comparably favorable view of the position taken by Sen Elizabeth Warren, who supports Medicare for all after a transition period.

According to the Nevada Independent, officials from the Culinary Union received threatening messages on via phone, email and Twitter from Sanders’ supporters angry about the flyer.

On Tuesday, Sanders condemned supporters who make “vicious attacks” on others, highlighting his support from labor unions.

“I am the strongest, perhaps lifetime, supporter of unions in the United States Congress. The idea that anybody who works with me would make a vicious attack against a union leader, just because we disagree on an issue, is incomprehensible to me,” Sanders said. “And you know what? I’m just not sure that that’s true.”

Updated

And we’re back... We’re now talking about climate change.

“I believe in science,” Warren said, launching into a defense of her ambitious proposals to combat global heating.

Sanders noted: “This is an existential threat... this is a moral issue.”

All the candidates tend to agree that climate change is a priority, though Warren and Sanders have the most progressive proposals.

Updated

Taking a short break. This has been a lively one.

Updated

Warren clashes with Bloomberg over women's NDAs

Warren had another strong moment taking on Bloomberg over nondisclosure agreements women have signed at his company, saying: “You could release them from that immediately.”

“They signed those agreements, and we’ll live with it,” Bloomberg responded. When Bloomberg tried to suggest that it was a mutual “consensual” agreement of silence that both sides wanted, Warren responded: “If they wish to speak out and tell their side of their story, that’s ok with you? You’re releasing them on television tonight?” The exchange ended with Bloomberg refusing to say he would release women from nondisclosure agreements and some in the audience booing.

Bloomberg at one point also defended his record on women, saying, “In my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities. They get paid the same as men.” Warren responded: “I hope you heard what his defense was, I’ve been nice to some women.”

Updated

Amy Klobuchar, who forgot the name of Mexico’s president in an interview with Univision, said it was a momentary lapse.

When Buttigieg pushed back, she responded: “Are you calling me dumb? Are you mocking me?”

Buttigieg was the one candidate who correctly named Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the interview; Klobuchar and Tom Steyer (who is not on stage tonight) couldn’t remember. Mayor Pete’s campaign has been promoting the interview in campaig emails to supporters.

Updated

One thing that everyone seems to agree on tonight is that this debate is the most intense, combative one yet.

Bloomberg has gone after Sanders, Biden has gone after Bloomberg, and Warren has pretty much gone after everyone.

Here’s how viewers have been responding to the rumble happening on stage:

Updated

Warren is drilling down on Bloomberg, and the fact that he won’t release women from confidentiality agreements they signed relating to allegations of a hostile work environment at his company. She drew more parallels between Bloomberg and Donald Trump, who has brushed off a litany of sexual harassment accusations.

Updated

Now Bloomberg is addressing his part comments on women, and allegations that he fostered a sexist work environment at his company Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg had a testy response. He said he takes the Me Too movement seriously and when someone makes sexist or discriminatory comments at his company, “we investigate it. And if it’s inappropriate, they’re gone that day,” he said.

Elizabeth Warren is pursuing a very new strategy tonight: attack everyone in sight. Here’s how she ripped through the healthcare plans of her rivals earlier in tonight’s debate:

Updated

Echoing Donald Trump’s excuses for not releasing his tax returns, Mike Bloomberg said it “takes time”. “I can’t go to Turbo Tax,” he said. The multibillionaire has said he will release his returns “in a few weeks”.

“Transparency matters, especially in the Trump era,” Pete Buttigieg said, referring to Bernie Sanders’ reluctance to release detailed health records. Buttigieg, 38, said he’s happy to get a physical and release the results — drawing chuckles and groans from the crowd.

Sanders pivoted back to his healthcare plan, contrasting his Medicare for All proposal with Pete Buttigieg’s “Medicare for those who want it” which Sanders described as “status quo”.

Bloomberg is stumbling in his response to stop and frisk, even though he surely rehearsed for this moment.

He said he was “embarrassed” by it: “I’ve apologized. I’ve asked for forgiveness. We stopped too many people.” He claimed that he introduced stop and frisk to fight homicides in New York City, saying: “I thought my first responsibility was to give people the right to live.”

“It got out of control.” Bloomberg also said, “I discovered we were doing too many stop and frisks.” In reality, a court ordered the city to stop the policy, deeming it unconstitutional.

Warren got applause for her response, noting the harm stop and frisk caused with communities of color, adding: “You need a different apology.”

Updated

Bloomberg addressed his stop-and-frisk policy: “I thought my first responsibility was to give people the right to live,” he said, but “it got out of control”.

“I’ve sat, I’ve apologized, I’ve asked for forgiveness,” Bloomberg said. “We stopped too many people.”

He added: “If we took everybody that was wrong” on criminal justice, “there would be nobody up here.”

That explanation wasn’t enough for Warren, who once again leaped in. “This really is about leadership and accountability,” she said. The policy was racist in its conception, she added. “It targeted communities of color; it targeted black and brown men from the beginning.”

Updated

Bloomberg’s first jab: “Let me finish,” he said as Biden tried to cut in as the former New York mayor criticized the hallmark healthcare legislation of the Obama/Biden administration. Overall, Bloomberg has been less fiery than his opponents.

Updated

Amy Klobuchar’s very on-brand response to Warren: “Post-it notes were invented in my state”. Warren’s critique of her moderate rival is relentless. “Amy, I’ve seen your plan” she said, describing it as “two paragraphs”.

“Families are suffering. You can’t simply stand here and trash an idea to give healthcare coverage to everyone without having a realistic plan of your own,” Warren said.

Updated

This is a very nasty and negative start to the debate.

Within 15 minutes, all of the candidates have aggressively targeted Bloomberg with well-delivered, rehearsed attacks on the former New York City mayor over stop and frisk and his history of misogynistic insults.

Warren started with the strongest attack on Bloomberg, listing his past insults against women and noting she was not talking about Trump: “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

Buttigieg’s first line was a dual attack on both Sanders and Bloomberg, saying, “Let’s put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.”

So far, very little discussion of policy. Bloomberg has presented himself as the best candidate to take on Trump, but has largely not directly responded to the attacks and not addressed his past remarks on women.

Elizabeth Warren, whose voice is hoarse as she is fighting off a cold, is coming across stong. She attacked her opponents’ healthcare plans. Buttigieg’s plan is a mere “PowerPoint” she said. “Amy’s plan is even less; it’s a post-it note.”

And while Sanders’ plan is “good start”, but “his campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question” about it she said. “His own advisors say ‘Eh, probably won’t happen anyway.’”

Updated

This is a very nasty and negative start to the debate. Within 15 minutes, all of the candidates have aggressively targeted Bloomberg with well-delivered, rehearsed attacks on the former New York City mayor over stop and frisk and his history of misogynistic insults. Warren started with the strongest attack on Bloomberg, listing his past insults against women and noting she was not talking about Trump: “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.” Buttigieg’s first line was a dual attack on both Sanders and Bloomberg, saying, “Let’s put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.” So far, very little discussion of policy. Bloomberg has presented himself as the best candidate to take on Trump, but has largely not directly responded to the attacks and not addressed his past remarks on women.

Amy Klobuchar said she has an idea for how to stop sexism on the Internet: “Elect a woman”.

Bernie Sanders said he disowns his supporters’ online attacks on those who disagree with the Vermont senator’s candidacy and platforms. “If there are a few people who make ugly remarks, who attack trade union leaders, I disown those people – they are not part of my campaign,” he said.

He also said that some of the hateful comments aimed at union leaders in Nevada could have come from trolls and bots, rather than his campaign.

Updated

The $60bn elephant in the room has been immediately addressed tonight, with every candidate using their first answers to go after the extremely wealthy Mike Bloomberg.

Elizabeth Warren had the punchiest line of attack, bringing attention to Bloomberg’s history of derogatory remarks about women:

Already the debate is far livelier, and more contentious than some of the previous ones. “Maybe it’s time for the working class” to have a say in government, Sanders jabbed at Buttigieg, “rather than your billionaire campaign contributors.”

Buttigieg hit back by pointing out that the powerful Culinary Union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, has taken issue with Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.

Updated

“Mayor Bloomberg, there’s a lot for you to respond to,” NBC’s Lester Holt said, as the multibillionaire candidates’ rivals – as expected – pounced on him.

“He has not managed his city very, very well,” Joe Biden weighed in, adding that with his stop and frisk policy, Bloomberg was “throwing up to 5 million black men up against the wall”.

Pete Buttigieg piled on: “Let’s elect someone who is actually a Democrat.”

Updated

Warren attacks 'arrogant billionaire' Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg responded that if Sanders is the candidate, “we will have Donald Trump for the next four years”.

Elizabeth Warren cut in that there’s one candidate who has referred to women as “fat broads”.

“No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg,” she said. “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

Updated

The first question goes to Bernie Sanders: Bloomberg is pitching himself as a centrist; why is your revolution a better bet.

Sanders’ response immediately called out Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy. His campaign brings in people of color, and “works for all of us and not just the billionaire class”, Sanders said.

Updated

Candidates take the stage

The six Democratic candidates participating on the debate tonight have taken their positions on stage, and the debate is about to begin.

Updated

Trump wraps a multi-day trip to California

Donald Trump is wrapping up a multi-day visit to California, where he’s renewed his attack on the state’s homelessness crisis and other pressing concerns in an effort to shame the Democratic leaders of the Golden State’s biggest cities, my colleague Mario Koran writes from San Francisco.

It is the president’s fourth trip to California. On Tuesday, Trump met with organizers for the 2028 Olympic Games before heading to a fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

Donald Trump takes selfies with supporters as he arrives in Palm Springs, California, on 19 February.
Donald Trump takes selfies with supporters as he arrives in Palm Springs, California, on 19 February. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

During the stop, Trump took aim at Los Angeles officials, claiming they were working to shield undocumented immigrants by refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement agents to apprehend those in the country without authorization.

In the last week, the Trump administration has ratcheted up the pressure on so-called sanctuary cities – where local law enforcement doesn’t cooperate with Ice to apprehend people – by sending elite border patrol Swat teams to supplement immigration enforcement agents already on the ground.

On Friday the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, along with the LAPD chief, Michel Moore, released a video in which they promised to shield those in the city.

“Regardless of your immigration status, I want every Angeleno to know your city is on your side. Here in Los Angeles, our police department does not coordinate with ICE or participate in immigration enforcement,” Garcetti said on Twitter.

On Wednesday Trump was scheduled to attend a fundraiser hosted by Larry Ellison, the chairman of Oracle, a plan that drew fire from the tech company’s employees who said in a statement that the president doesn’t “affirm Oracle’s core values of diversity, inclusiveness, and ethical business conduct”.

Then later Wednesday it was on to the Central Valley, California’s agricultural center, where Trump planned to join the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and “to speak with hard working farmers in the Central Valley about efforts to dramatically improve the supply and delivery of water in California and other Western states”, according to a White House statement.

Trump is slated to head to Phoenix for an evening campaign stop before heading east for rallies in Colorado Springs and Las Vegas.

Mike Bloomberg is about to face his Democratic rivals for the first time

Minutes before the debate begins, Mike Bloomberg’s campaig aired ad on MSNBC.

After spending more than $300m of his own fortune on huge ad buys, Bloomberg’s name recognition and support have soared. But so far, he has avoided any direct confrontations with his opponents, having skipped the early primary states.

Because the Democratic National Committee changed its rules to remove a public fundraising requirement to participate in the debates, Bloomberg will finally get to join his fellow contenders for the Democratic nomination on the debate stage in Las Vegas.

In the run-up to the debate, his rivals have attacked Bloomberg’s record on race and policing, even as the multibillionaire former mayor’s past policies and comments have come back to haunt him.

Mike Bloomberg appears on a video monitor inside the media center for Wednesday’s debate.
Mike Bloomberg appears on a video monitor inside the media center for Wednesday’s debate. Photograph: David Becker/Reuters

He has had to once again address allegations from former employees that he routinely made sexist comments at work. A newly resurfaced PBS interview from 2011 shows Bloomberg describing an “enormous cohort of black and Latino males” who “don’t know how to behave in the workplace”, and resurfaced video from 2019 showed him saying that trans rights were about “some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter”.

Amid the barrage of negative news coverage, Bloomberg’s competitors have said they’ll relish the chance to take him on tonight. On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders said Bloomberg’s campaign was an example of “oligarchy, not democracy”. Previewing the debate, Elizabeth Warren said, in a tweet: “At least now primary voters curious about how each candidate will take on Donald Trump can get a live demonstration of how we each take on an egomaniac billionaire.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg has largely avoided discussing his Democratic rivals, and his campaign has focused on how he can defeat Donald Trump in a general election. For the first time, he’ll have to respond directly to his competitors’ concerns.

More dispatches from the lobby:

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warmed up the audience before the start of the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Theater in Las Vegas.
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warmed up the audience before the start of the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Theater in Las Vegas. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Harry Reid, a former senator from Nevada who served as the Senate Majority leader from 2007 to 2015, said Nevada should be the first state to vote, because of its diversity and because of the state’s strong record of electing women.

“Women have empowered us,” said Reid, who is in the audience of the debate.

Updated

Can Pete Buttigieg broaden his appeal?

I reported from California last week on whether Pete Buttigieg could capitalize on his strong early primary performance as he heads to Nevada, a diverse state that many see as more representative of the Democratic party today than earlier-voting states.

The 38-year-old former mayor of a midsize midwestern city won the most delegates in Iowa, and the second-most votes in New Hampshire – both predominantly white states. Now, his campaign is scrambling to win over the diverse electorates in three forthcoming primary states: Nevada, South Carolina and California. So far, Buttigieg has struggled to earn the backing of voters of color.

Only 4% of black Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters supported Buttigieg in a Quinnipiac poll published on Monday. By contrast, 27% of black voters supported the former vice-president Joe Biden. Buttigieg is also polling in the low single digits among Latinos, who make up 19% of likely voters in California – with Asian Americans making up another 13%. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has acknowledged his struggle to court communities of color but says he’s confident the momentum he’s gained in Iowa and New Hampshire will win them over.

Pete Buttigieg attends the UNLV Black Law Students Association Presidential forum in Las Vegas.
Pete Buttigieg attends the UNLV Black Law Students Association Presidential forum in Las Vegas. Photograph: Eric Thayer/Reuters

So far, Buttigieg has spent much of his time in California connecting with wealthy donors in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. His courting of millionaires and billionaires, and in particular his lavish Napa wine cave fundraiser, have drawn sneers from some of his progressive competitors.

Now his campaign is reaching for more diverse crowds. Ahead of next week’s caucuses in Nevada, he’s on a whirlwind tour of the west, with Friday stops in San Francisco and Palo Alto, as well as Turlock, a Central Valley town where he is helping raise money to boost down-ballot Democrats.

This week his campaign also launched an ad in Nevada that features the polyglot Buttigieg pitching himself in Spanish as “the president who will turn the page and unify our very polarized country”.

His moderate appeal is what attracted Eileen Ikeda. “I’m looking for some who’s not extremely left or right,” she said at the Friday town hall. “That’s why he appeals to so many older people – our generation is that way.”

But Ikeda, 70, said she does worry about his lack of support among minorities and young people: “He needs to maybe put more effort and address them more.”

Read the full story here.

Updated

Where things stand in the race

Bernie Sanders is leading in polls with 31% support nationally, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Mike Bloomberg is in second place, with 19% support – which allowed him to qualify for today’s debate. Joe Biden comes in third, with 15% – down nine points since December – and Elizabeth Warren was fourth, with 12% support.

Amy Klobuchar – who made a strong showing in New Hampshire and in the previous Democratic debate – has gained a few points since the poll was last conducted, in December. She placed fourth with 9% support, followed by Pete Buttigieg with 8%.

However, Buttigieg currently has the most delegates of the pack – one more than Sanders – following his narrow advantage in Iowa.

Inside the busy lobby of the Paris Theater in Las Vegas, there is a wide range of Nevada voters trying to get seats for the final debate before the state’s Saturday caucus. I didn’t find any Mike Bloomberg supporters in line, but there were a fair number of Elizabeth Warren supporters – and even a small group of Andrew Yang fans, despite his recent decision to suspended his campaign:


“We’re trying to get people to vote for him to show there’s support for his ideas,” said Hannah Won, 37-year-old arts advocate and Yang voter who is a supporter of his signature universal basic income proposal. “It’s larger than him. It’s about his movement. It was kind of inevitable [that he would drop out], but I was hoping for another week. We mourned for a bit. But this isn’t over. He’s gone, but his movement is still alive.”

“This is the biggest election of our life time,” said Linda Gannon, a 49-year-old Vegas resident who showed up to the debate hoping to get a seat to see Buttigieg, her top choice. “I’m a bit worried about him in Nevada, but I think he’s got a shot. I feel confident any of the Democrats can beat Trump. We have to feel that way, and I will support any of them.”


Jocelyn Torres, 30, said she was a Warren fan and that she thinks the senator can do well on Saturday: “Her plans are progressive and doable. I think we can have big ideas, but if we can’t get them done, they are just ideas.”


Lorraine Oliver, a 68-year-old public health nurse in line to get into the debate, said she recently got a chance to meet Warren in person and was sold: “She has such in-depth knowledge. But she’s not polling as well as I’d like. I need her to shoot up in the polls.”

Updated

Trump supporters cheer as they await the president’s arrival in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump supporters cheer as they await the president’s arrival in Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph: Rick D’Elia/EPA

Not long after the Democrats looking to unseat him take to the debate stage, Donald Trump is expected to speak at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Arizona rally is the first of three rallies Trump has scheduled in three Western states. He’ll head to Colorado on Thursday and then Nevada on Friday, providing counterprogramming to the upcoming Democratic caucus in the latter.

Earlier today, the president was in California, where he spoke about the construction of the southern border wall and access to water for farming. He also took an opportunity to jab his Democratic rivals. “Mini Mike hates the farm. I don’t know, I don’t think he’s going to be the candidate anyway. Have to start working on Crazy Bernie pretty soon,” Trump said.

The bellwether caucus

The caucus format of the “first in the west” vote tends to favor the campaign with the strongest ground support, reports Dan Hernandez from Las Vegas.

Nevadans who don’t vote early have to arrive at designated caucus precincts by 12pm to stand in their preferred candidate’s corner. Loyalty, in the raucous scene, can be tested. And tensions developed during debates and through paid and unpaid media may be on display. Nevadans working on the Las Vegas Strip who want to vote will be able to step away from their card tables, beverage stations, kitchens and housekeeping carts and join fellow staff in ballrooms reserved to caucus inside the MGM Grand, Bellagio, Wynn and other resorts.

A Las Vegas Review-Journal and AARP Nevada poll released on Friday showed Sanders with 25% support, followed by Biden with 18%, Warren at 13%, the businessman Tom Steyer at 11%, and Buttigieg tied Klobuchar at 10%.

In addition to a burgeoning army of volunteers, the Sanders campaign employs 250 people in the silver state, more than double the staff of Pete Buttigieg, the second-largest campaign at 100.

Lourdes Esparza, 38, said she volunteers for Sanders because her mother and grandmother can’t afford adequate healthcare and were forced to ration medicine and pass on doctor’s appointments to avoid co-pays. Esparza canvasses door-to-door despite also working weekdays at a teachers union and weekends hostessing at a restaurant. “‘How much is it going to cost?’ shouldn’t be the first words that come out of my grandmother’s mouth when she gets sick,” Esparza said.

Austreberto Hernandez, a 26-year-old immigrant rights advocate, said he will support Sanders for his “deliberate” approach to progressivism. “I feel like Bernie Sanders normalized the idea of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants [in 2015] because he said it a million times on the campaign trail.”

“All that stuff – universal healthcare, a $15 minimum wage – Bernie just pounded to death and now they’ve become household names.”

Read the full story here.

Six presidential candidates have gathered in Las Vegas for the Democratic debate

The ninth Democratic presidential debate hosted by NBC News and MSNBC with The Nevada Independent, is taking place at the Paris Las Vegas.
The ninth Democratic presidential debate hosted by NBC News and MSNBC with The Nevada Independent is taking place at the Paris Las Vegas. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Good evening, liveblog readers!

Tonight, the six presidential candidates are gathered in Las Vegas, Nevada for the ninth Democratic debate of this election cycle. We’ll be bringing you live updates from the debate throughout the night.

What to expect

The Democratic presidential debate in Nevada will bring together six candidates days before the state’s caucuses, and could be a make-or-break moment for some of the campaigns.

Facing off in Las Vegas on Wednesday evening are Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar; the former vice president Joe Biden; the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg; and the former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The debate comes one week after Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, setting the stage for a primary battle between the Vermont senator and the more moderate candidates fighting his momentum. On the heels of a strong performance in the messy Iowa caucuses, Buttigieg came in a close second in New Hampshire, where Klobuchar’s unexpected surge won her third place, and Warren and Biden both experienced disappointing results.

Bernie Sanders is coming in fresh off winning the New Hampshire primary.
Bernie Sanders is coming in fresh off winning the New Hampshire primary. Photograph: The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The February results make Saturday’s Nevada caucus a high-stakes race for many of the candidates, and the debate is providing the final opportunity for them to make their pitch on national TV.

“The pressure is building here, and the gloves are going to be off,” said Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows community college in Reno.

Sanders is likely to become a target of many of the candidates given his frontrunner status, similar to the way Biden was a magnet for criticisms in the early debates last year, Lokken predicted.

Read more from Sam Levin here.

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