LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Mike Bloomberg’s millions in campaign spending flew right out the window Wednesday night.
The billionaire’s self-bankrolled presidential bid was torn to shreds in the opening minutes of Wednesday’s Democratic debate as his opponents skewered him for his checkered past on sexual harassment and his record on stop-and-frisk.
Each candidate on the Las Vegas stage attacked Bloomberg right out of the gate, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made the former Big Apple mayor visibly squirm and roll his eyes in frustration.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,'” she said from the Paris Theater.
“And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
Bloomberg, 78, started to surge in national and state polls after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of his personal fortune into a slick campaign with catered campaign events and wall-to-wall TV ads.
Former Vice President Joe Biden attacked Bloomberg for “throwing close to 5 million young black men up against a wall” while mayor of New York City and said he only stopped after President Barack Obama intervened in his stop-and-frisk policy.
Ex-South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg called Bloomberg and Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders the “two most polarizing figures on this stage,” while Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar accused the media mogul of hiding.
“I actually welcomed Mayor Bloomberg to the stage. I thought that he shouldn’t be hiding behind his TV ads, and so I was all ready for this big day,” she said.
Bloomberg also became irritated when Warren asked him to release dozens of women from nondisclosure agreements they signed after working for his financial media company, Bloomberg LP.
“None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said to guffaws from the audience.
Bloomberg, who is worth a whopping $62 billion, is dogged by claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.