South Carolina Debate: Warren Destroys Bloomberg, Biden Slams Sanders' Gun Control Record

The melee among seven presidential nominee hopefuls at South Carolina Tuesday evening wasn't what the Democratic Party had hoped for. As for winners, as far as can be gleaned, the answer might as well be Donald Trump.

This ill-starred production featured Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer in less than sterling roles.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, picked-up where she left off in the previous debate in Las Vegas on February 19, and again tore into former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. In Las Vegas, Warren took Bloomberg to task for his alleged sexual harassment of women. She renewed her attacks this time around.

She again condemned Bloomberg for his alleged sexual harassments and risqué jokes, including one where he allegedly told a pregnant employee of his to "Kill it," referring to her unborn baby. Bloomberg apologized for his off-color jokes and said he's released female employees from their non-disclosure agreements as demanded by Warren.

Warren also blasted Bloomberg for being the only Democratic nominee not to release any of his tax returns. She also said this refusal is another trait Bloomberg shares with Trump, apart from both of them being billionaires.

“We know that Mayor Bloomberg has been doing business with China for a long time, and he is the only one on this stage who has not released his taxes,” said Warren. “He plans to release them after Super Tuesday. It is not enough to be able to say, just trust me on this.”

Bloomberg again promised to release his returns and said his campaign is working as fast as it can to release them. He also said he released his tax returns 12 years in a row when he was New York City mayor.

“I got into this race only 10 or 12 weeks ago. We have been working on our tax returns, I’ve said they will be out, we probably have another couple of weeks left to go, we're doing it as fast we can. We've complied with every single requirement for disclosure," said Bloomberg.

Warren, however, reserved most of her vitriol for Bloomberg's past financial support for three Republican senators. One of these senators, Scott Brown, challenged and lost his bid to unseat Warren in 2012.

Warren assailed Bloomberg for donating $12 million to the 2016 re-election campaign of GOP senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Warren described Toomey as an anti-choice, right-wing Republican.

Bloomberg said he supported Toomey because both share the same position on the issue of background checks on gun purchases. Bloomberg also supported the reelection campaign of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in 2014, said Warren.

"Who funded Lindsey Graham's campaign for reelection last time?" she asked. "It was Mayor Bloomberg. And that's not the only right-wing senator that Mayor Bloomberg has funded.”

As expected, frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders took the brunt of the attacks from his fellow nominees. Sanders, a democratic socialist, made their job easier with his ill-advised comments praising the late communist dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, for improving literacy in his country, and for communist China lifting millions of Chinese out of poverty. Sanders also has a spotty record on gun control.

Bloomberg said socialist Russia is helping socialist Sanders try to win the nomination.

"Russia is helping you get elected," said Bloomberg.

To which Sanders replied, "Oh, Mr. Bloomberg," adding "Hey, Mr. Putin, if I'm President of the United States, trust me, you're not going to interfere in any more American elections."

Sanders then hit back, saying the economy is “doing really great” for billionaires like Bloomberg. He said his own campaign is about creating an “economy for all.”

Former vice president Joe Biden, who has to win South Carolina to remain a viable nominee, attacked Sanders for his consistent anti-gun control positions over the decades.

Biden criticized Sanders for voting five times against the Brady Bill that established national background checks in 1993. He said he wanted a longer waiting period before handgun purchases in the Brady Bill than what Sanders supported. He also noted Sanders consistently doubted the efficacy of gun control despite supporting universal background checks and other gun control measures.

“I’m not saying he’s responsible for the nine deaths, but that man would not have been able to get that weapon had the waiting period been what I suggested,” said Biden.

For his part, Biden reminded everyone of his decades-long record on gun control. He said he helped pass bills that implemented national background checks and banned assault weapons in the 1990s.

"But my friend to my right and others, in fact, also gave in to the gun manufacturers -- absolute immunity … 150 million people have been killed since 2007, when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability. More than all the wars, including Vietnam, from that point on. Carnage on our streets."

Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg again assailed Bloomberg for stop-and-frisk, which Democrats agree was a racist policy aimed squarely against blacks and Latinos. Buttigieg held the same opinion.

“I come to this with some humility because I’m conscious of the fact that there are seven white people on this stage,” said Buttigieg. “None of us -- none of us have the experience, the lived experience of -- for example, walking down the street, or in a mall, and feeling eyes on us, regarding us as dangerous, without knowing the first thing about us just because of the color of our skin.”