In recent months, the Democratic debates have gotten pretty pointless. It’s basically been a place for candidates to get up and relay the broadest talking points form their stump speeches with little pushback and even less actual “debate.” That changed last night.
Now, treating politics like entertainment is dangerous and part of the reason why we ended up with Trump in the White House so it’s not that I wanted drama for drama’s sake, but last night’s debate in Nevada was both a really useful debate in terms of getting to know these candidates and also a legitimately fun two hours of television. That was, in large part, because Elizabeth Warren decided to stop playing nice and call everyone on their crap.
These are the highlights from Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 candidate roast, a.k.a. the Nevada debate pic.twitter.com/aBRusK2f8k
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 20, 2020
She started the night taking on Bloomberg. Here was the very first thing she said right at the top of the debate:
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,” she said. “And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
She continued, “Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop-and-frisk. Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”
In case you felt the Earth shake, that was Elizabeth Warren tearing Bloomberg’s face from his body. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/Ljx5AEs2Gh
— Ella Dawson (@brosandprose) February 20, 2020
The issue of “electability” keeps coming up as a concern for voters, and despite being the only candidates on the stage who have won every election they’ve run in, it’s really only the women who ever seem to be labeled as having an “electability” problem. I think electability is a nonsense phrase but Warren made a great case for why Bloomberg is hands down the least electable person in this race: Because he’s basically Donald Trump.
Warren called Bloomberg out for the nondisclosure agreements he’s had employees sign as part of settlements regarding hostile workplace allegations. She asked the former mayor to commit on-air to releasing those women from their NDAs “so we can hear their side of the story.”
Bloomberg did not react well. He said his company has “very few” NDAs (he wouldn’t say how many) and that no woman has had a problem with him “other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told.” YIKES.
(takes a deep, lung-filling breath) https://t.co/g6ThYSYNHn
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) February 20, 2020
Bet you 32 million you shouldn’t be weighing in on this, bubs.
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) February 20, 2020
Bloomberg also said the agreements, signed by “a man or a woman or could be more than that” (???) were signed “consensually” so what’s the point in releasing them from it now?
It was a VERY bad answer.
“I can’t release women from NDAs because they were made consensually,” shut the fuck up. Shut the everliving fuck up
— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) February 20, 2020
Bloomberg aged about 20 years and negative 20 million dollars on stage tonight
— Jessica Mason Pieklo (@Hegemommy) February 20, 2020
Mike Bloomberg paid half a billion dollars to stand on a stage and have a bunch of other old people alternate between being EXTREMELY mean to him and fully ignoring him. It is very very funny. #DemDebate
— Alex Fernie (@FernieCommaAlex) February 20, 2020
I relate to Bloomberg in terms of I, too, have paid money to have a bad time
— broti gupta (@BrotiGupta) February 20, 2020
Someone futzed with @Wikipedia pic.twitter.com/xyzLq4t028
— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) February 20, 2020
On that issue of electability, Warren laid it out perfectly: “We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. That’s not what we do as Democrats.”
“We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many non-disclosure agreements.” – Warren confronts over Bloomberg over his non-disclosure agreements pic.twitter.com/jaKPC43Iwf
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) February 20, 2020
Bloomberg basically pic.twitter.com/aHnQMku7dO
— Jessica Mason Pieklo (@Hegemommy) February 20, 2020
Warren may have murdered Bloomberg, but he wasn’t her only target last night. She also went after Joe Biden’s relationship with Mitch McConnell and Pete Buttigieg’s private fundraisers. She criticized Amy Klobuchar’s and Buttigieg’s health care plans, calling them a “post-it note” and a “thin” plan disguised by a good slogan, respectively.
Check out Pete’s face when she says his healthcare plan is “not a plan, it’s a PowerPoint.” It’s my new favorite reaction GIF for absolutely everything.
It was a hell of a night for Elizabeth Warren.
Is this debate the patriarchy because Liz Warren is crushing it
— Jake Maccoby (@jdmaccoby) February 20, 2020
lester holt: thanks for being here
liz warren: mike bloomberg is an absolute piece of shit
— Very Calm Sporting Enthusiast (@CalmSporting) February 20, 2020
elizabeth warren: listen to what amy klobuchar said
amy klobuchar: :)
elizabeth warren: it was bullshit
amy klobuchar: :/
— lil bit (@oigevalt) February 20, 2020
everyone waiting their turn to get burned by warren pic.twitter.com/xzTDRUpqpO
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 20, 2020
Because she took it. https://t.co/cmUuPSePOD
— 🕷Dante Atkins🕷 (@DanteAtkins) February 20, 2020
My only takeaway: The whole floor is covered with blood and none of it is Elizabeth Warren’s
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) February 20, 2020
Warren to everyone tonight at the #DemDebate: pic.twitter.com/Yvf2ol1EVp
— deray (@deray) February 20, 2020
This all paid off for Warren, too, in more than just emotional satisfaction.
We just had our best debate day of the entire campaign, raising more than $2.8 million. 🔥
Will you chip in $2 right now to keep the momentum going? We can only do this together. https://t.co/uXvKIOKVrW
— Team Warren (@TeamWarren) February 20, 2020
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