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As it happenedended1582174066

Democratic debate: Winners, losers, protests, arguments and all the key moments from Las Vegas

Follow the latest updates, as they happened

Clark Mindock
New York
Thursday 20 February 2020 05:36 GMT
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Buttigeig slams Trump and Limbaugh over family values

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.

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This, again, is a pretty startling figure from the Warren campaign:

Clark Mindock20 February 2020 04:40
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Andre Yang's take on the night:

Clark Mindock20 February 2020 04:41

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