Senator Elizabeth Warren had maybe essentially the most sophisticated argument to make, saying that Mr. Sanders was successful “as a result of the Democratic Celebration is a progressive social gathering” however evaluating her personal file of accomplishment favorably to his. “Progressives have gotten one shot,” she mentioned, “and we have to spend it with a frontrunner who will get one thing carried out.”
No candidate entered the night with extra restore work to do than Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor whose jarring stumbles throughout final week’s debate had shaken confidence in his smartest-guy-in-the-room pitch to Democratic voters. Whereas he had some steadier moments on Tuesday, presenting himself as extra electable than Mr. Sanders at each alternative and speaking up his philanthropic historical past with gun management, Mr. Bloomberg slogged by way of some lowlights as soon as extra.
Challenged once more by Ms. Warren over nondisclosure agreements with girls at his firm amid allegations of office mistreatment, Mr. Bloomberg had hassle touchdown an apology for making “jokes” that workers didn’t admire. “I don’t bear in mind what they had been,” he mentioned. “If it bothered them, I used to be unsuitable, and I apologize.”
Later, he needed to catch himself, whereas discussing his spending through the 2018 midterms, from starting to say he had “purchased” the Home majority for Democrats: “All the new Democrats that got here in, put Nancy Pelosi in cost and gave the Congress the power to manage this president, I purchased — I, I bought them.”
At one level, in a dialogue of redlining, Mr. Bloomberg stopped — “since I’ve the ground for a second” — to mirror on the humbling of the previous week earlier than “my fellow contestants.” “I’m stunned they present up,” he mentioned, testing a little bit self-deprecation, “as a result of I might have thought after I did such a superb job in beating them final week, that they’d be a little bit bit afraid to do this.”
The controversy gathered the contenders in a state with a big black Democratic voters, after a month that started with two nominating contests in predominantly white states. However the setting solely bolstered how far the 2020 main had traveled in current months. Right here was a stage stuffed with white individuals — 4 septuagenarians, two billionaires, one septuagenarian billionaire — left to signify a area that when appeared extra just like the nation, with candidates of coloration and several other extra girls onstage for a lot of the previous 12 months.
Mr. Biden, who counts black voters because the core of his political base, is counting on a victory within the state to carry him into Tremendous Tuesday subsequent week. Different extra reasonable choices, like Senator Amy Klobuchar and Mr. Buttigieg have struggled to attach with nonwhite audiences.