Democratic debate: Winners, losers, protests, arguments and all the key moments from Las Vegas
Follow the latest updates, as they happened
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The six leading Democratic presidential candidates have have sparred on stage in Las Vegas last presidential primary debate before the Nevada caucuses, marking the most heated clash yet in the primary season
Finally joining the candidates who have been vying for a shot at unseating Donald Trump in the key early voting states is Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire White House hopeful who has gotten under the president’s skin in recent weeks thanks to a heavily-funded advertising spree. Mr Trump attacked the former New York City mayor as a “pathetic debater” ahead of tonight’s event, to which Mr Bloomberg replied: “Impeached president says what?”
But Mr Bloomberg's fellow Democrats all saw him as an apparent obvious target, and repeatedly attacked him for his wealth, and his decision to bankroll his own campaign and to skip the first few nominating states altogether (including Nevada).
Enjoying his status as front-runner, Bernie Sanders steered through the night with relatively few attacks on his campaign, and reliably stuck to his general message arguing against billionaires — including Mr Bloomberg.
It was Elizabeth Warren who may have stolen the show, though, with a heated attack on Mr Bloomberg early on for his use of NDAs in his business, which he refused to pull from women who might have accusations to be made against him.
The president wasn’t the only one lobbing attacks against Mr Bloomberg before the debate, either: as the Democrats prepared to spar, Ms Warren warned the billionaire she would use the debate to show how she handles an “egomaniac billionaire", along with several other candidates who said they would take on the former mayor.
Follow live updates below:
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
Candidates at the moment are all claiming that the Democrats plan on getting to the same goal — a responsible stewardship of the environment.
Warren says she wants to "make sure" that the issue of "environmental justice gets more than just a glancing blow" in the debate.
She notes that toxic dumps and issues often impact low-income and minority communities.
Bloomberg says he is "well on the record against red-lining", and says his comments blaming the 2008 financial crisis on removing red-lining were taken out of context.
Bloomberg gets a light moment by asking the stage if anyone else had started a business.
Nobody had.
"Ok," he said, to laughs.
Sanders and Bloomberg get into a tiff now over the tax rate for billionaires.
Bloomberg attacks Sanders for writing the code, which he denies, and says that billionaires have yielded major power over the tax code.
"We have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. Mike Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans. That's wrong and immoral," Sanders says when asked about his statements that billionaires should not exist.
He notes that the US has a student loan crisis, and a homelessness crisis.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments