'Are you saying I'm dumb?': Klobuchar hits back at Buttigieg in bad-tempered Democratic debate

Former mayor taunts rival over forgetting name of Mexican president

Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar hit out at fellow Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg during a bad-tempered debate in Las Vegas after he criticised her for having forgotten the name of the Mexican president.

Ms Klobuchar was challenged on having been unable to name Andrés Manuel López Obrador in an interview.

When she admitted that she had forgotten his name but insisted she was across the details of important foreign policy issues, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana – who performed strongly in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary – turned on her.

Mr Buttigieg said: "You are staking your candidacy on your Washington experience.

"You're on the committee that oversees border security, you're on the committee that does trade – you're literally part of the committee that's overseeing these things. And you're not able to speak to literally the first thing about the politics of the country to the south."

Smiling and shaking her head, Ms Klobuchar eventually interrupted, saying: "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete? I said I made an error. People sometimes forget names. "

The senator said her rival – a fellow centrist – was "basically saying I don't have the experience to be president" before saying she had passed more than 100 bills.

She added: "I am the one – not you – that has won statewide in congressional district after congressional district. And I will say, when you tried in Indiana, Pete, to run, what happened to you? You lost by 20 points."

It was the latest clash in the most heated of the Democratic debates so far.

It began with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren attacking Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor who was appearing at his first debate.

She said: "I'd like to talk about who we are running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse faced lesbians. And no I am not talking about Donald Trump. I am talking about Mayor Bloomberg.

"Look, I'll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this, Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another."