Announcer from nbc news, the democratic president ial debate live from las vegas, nevada. Good evening, everyone. Im lester holt. Welcome to las vegas. Everything is on the line tonight with just three days before the critical nevada caucuses. Here with me on the stage, nbc news political director chuck todd. Nbc news chief White House Correspondent hallie jackson. Also joining us is telemundo Senior Correspondent vanessa hauc. And editor of the nevada independent jon ralston. The rules are there tonight. Candidates will get a minute 15 to answer each question and 45 seconds for followups. Now that the stage is narrowed to six candidates, we encourage each of you to directly engage with each other on the issues. Since the last time you all shared the stage, senator sanders, a selfdescribed democratic socialist, has surged into the lead nationally in the democratic race. Theres a new person on the stage tonight mayor Michael Bloomberg who spent millions of his own dollars to run in this race. A majority of democratic voters still say their top priority is beating President Trump. Senator sanders, mayor bloomberg is pitching himself as a centrist who says hes best positioned to win in november. Why is your revolution a better bet . In order to beat donald trump were going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. Mr. Bloomberg had policies in new york city of stop and frisk, which went after africanamerican and latino people in an outrageous way. That is not a way youre going to grow voter turnout. What our movement is about the bringing working class people together, black and white and latino, native american, Asian American around an agenda that works for all of us and not just the billionaire class. And that agenda says that maybe, just maybe, we should join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee health care to all people as a human right, raise the minimum wage to a living wage of 15 bucks an hour and have the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry, because their shortterm profits are not more important than the future of this planet and the need to combat Climate Change. Those are some of the reasons we have the strongest campaign to defeat donald trump. Mayor bloomberg can senator sanders beat President Trump and how do you want to respond to what else he said . I dont think theres any chance of the senator beating President Trump. You dont start out by saying ive got 160 Million People im going to take away the Insurance Plan that they love. Thats just not a ways that you go and Start Building the coalition that the sanders camp thinks they can do. I dont think theres any chance whatsoever. And if he goes and is the candidate, we will have donald trump for another four years, and we cant stand that. Id like to talk about who were running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse facedless beanbea lesbians. Im not talking about donald trump. Im talking about mayor bloomberg. Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of supporting racist polls like redlining and stop and frisk. Ill support whoever the democratic nominee is. But understand this, democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. This country has worked for the rich for a long time and left everyone else in the dirt. It is time to have a president who will be on the side of working families and be willing to get out there and fight for them. That is why i am in this race and that is how i will beat donald trump. Senator klobuchar, what do you think the path is from this stage to the white house . What works . I think the path is a high voter turnout. Im the one on this stage who had the highest voter turnout of any state in the country when i led the ticket, as well as bringing in rural and suburban voters. And ive done that as well. Im the only one with the receipts to have done that in republican Congressional Districts over and over again. But i want to say this. I actually welcomed mayor bloomberg to the stage. I thought that he shouldnt be hiding behind his tv ads. So i was all ready for this big day. Then i looked at the memo from his Campaign Staff this morning and it said that he actually thought that three of us should get out of the way. That is what his campaign said, because we should pave the way for him to become the nominee. You know, i have been told as a woman, as someone that maybe no one thought was still going to be standing up on this stage, but i am because of pure grit and because of the people out there. Ive been told many times to wait my turn and to step aside. Im not going to do that now and im not going to do that because a Campaign Memo from mayor bloomberg said this morning that the only way that we get a nominee is if we step aside for him. I think we need Something Different than donald trump. I dont think you look at donald trump and say we need someone richer in the white house. Thank you. Mayor bloomberg, a lot for you to respond to there so heres your opportunity. I think we have two questions to face tonight. One is who can beat donald trump and, number two, who can do the job if they get into the white house. I would argue that i am the candidate that can do exactly both of those things. Im a new yorker. I know how to take on an arrogant con man like donald trump who comes from new york. Im a mayor or was a mayor. I know how to run a complicated city, the biggest most diverse city in this country. Im a manager. I knew what to do after 911 and brought the city back stronger than ever. And im a philanthropist who didnt inherit his money, but made his money. Im spending that money to get rid of donald trump, the worst president we have ever had. If i can get that done, it will be a great contribution to america and to my kids. Vice President Biden, ill let you weigh in here. In terms of who can beat donald trump, nbc did a poll yesterday. It says joe biden is best equipped to beat donald trump. Thats what your poll said. And it said that i be beat him in those tossup states, those states we have to win. In terms of beating donald trump, im better positioned, according to your poll, than anybody else to beat donald trump. Number one. Number two, the mayor makes an interesting point. The mayor says he has a great record, that hes done these wonderful things. The fact of the matter is he has n not managed his city very well when he was there. He had stop and frisk, throwing close to 5 million young black men up against a wall. When we came along in our administration with president obama and said were going to send in a meetua yamediator to he said thats unnecessary. Were going to get a chance to talk about the mayors record. But in terms of who is best prepared to beat donald trump, look at your poll and what it says. Mayor buttigieg, youd like to weigh in. Yes. Weve got to wake up as a party. We could wake up two weeks from today, the day after super tuesday, and the only candidates left standing will be Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg, the two most polarizing figures on this stage. And most americans dont see where they fit if theyve got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. Lets put forward somebody who actually lives and works in a middle class neighbor in an industrial mid western city. Lets put forward somebody whos actually a democrat. Look we shouldnt have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out. We can do better. Senator sanders, are you polarizing . If speaking to the needs and the pain of a long neglected working class is polarizing, i think you got the wrong word. What we are trying finally to do is to give a voice to people who after 45 years of work are not making a nickel more than they did 45 years ago. We are giving a voice to people who say we are sick and tired of billionaires like mr. Bloomberg seeing huge expansions of their wealth while a half a Million People sleep out on the street tonight. We are saying, pete, is maybe its time for the working class of this country to have a little bit of power in washington rather than your Billionaire Campaign contributors. Look, first of all, my campaign is fuelled by hundreds of thousands of contributors. Including 46 billionaires. Among the hundreds of thousands of crib tontributors. Weve got to unite this country to deal with these issues. Youre not the only one who cares about the working class. Most americans believe we need to empower workers. As a matter of fact, youre the one who is at war with the Culinary Union right here in las vegas. We have more support than you have ever dreamed of. We have the support of unions all across we can actually deliver Health Care Without taking it away from anyone. We can actually empower workers and lift wages without further polarizing this country and we can build a Movement Without having legions of our supporters online and in person attacking democratic figures and Union Leaders alike. I have a question for you. On sunday on meet the press Vice President biden accused senator sanders supporters of bullying Union Leaders with vicious, malicious, misogynistic things. You said democrats cannot build an Inclusive Party on an foundation of hate. Are senator sanders and his supporters making it harder . Ive said it many times before we are all responsible for our supporters. We need to step up. Thats what leadership is all about. The way we are going to lead this country and beat donald trump is going to be with a candidate who has rock solid values and who actually gets something done. When mayor bloomberg was busy blaming africanamericans and latinos for the housing crash of 2008, i was right here in las vegas literally just a few blocks down the Street Holding hearings on the banks that were taking away homes from millions of families. Thats when i met mr. Estrada, one of your neighbors. He came in to testify and said he thought hed done everything right with wells fargo but they took away his house in a matter of weeks. This man stood there and cried while he talked about what it was like to tell his two little daughters that they might not be in their elementary school, that they might be living out of their van. I spent the next years making sure that would never happen again. Wall street fought us every inch of the way on a consumer agency. They lost and i won. We need a candidate with unshakable values and a candidate who can actually get something done for working people. Thank you, senator. Thats why im in this race and thats how ill beat donald trump. Senator sanders. We have over 10. 6 Million People on twitter and 99. 9 of them are decent human beings, are working people, are people who believe in justice, compassion and love. And if there are a few people who make ugly remarks, who attack trade Union Leaders, i disown those people. They are not part of our movement. But let me also say what i hope my friends up here will agree with is that if you look at the wild west of the internet, talk to some of the africanamerican women on my campaign, talk to senator nina turner, talk to others and find the vicious, racist, sexist attacks that are coming their way as well. So i would hope that all of us understand that we should do everything we possibly can to end the viciousness and ugliness on the internet. Our campaign is about issues. Its about fighting for the working families and the middle class. It is not about vicious attacks on other people. Senator, when you say that you disown these attacks and you didnt personally direct them, i believe you. Thank you. But at a certain point you got to ask yourself why did this pattern arise . Why is it especially the case among your supporters . I dont think it is especially the case, by the way. Thats just not true. Pete, if you want to talk to some of the women on my campaign, what you will see is the most ugly, sexist, racist attacks that are i wouldnt even describe them here theyre so disgusting. Let me Say Something else about this, not being too paranoid. All of us remember 2016 and what we remember is efforts by russians and others to try to interfere in our election and divide us up. Im not saying thats happening, but it would not shock me. I saw some of those tweets regarding the culinary workers union. I have a 30year 100 prounion voting record. Do you think i would support or anybody who supports me would be attacking Union Leaders . Its not thinkable. Leadership is about what you draw out of people. Its about how you inspire people to act. Were in this toxic political environment. Leadership isnt just about policy. Were largely pulling in the same direction on policy, but leadership is also about how you motivate people to treat other people. I think you have to accept some responsibility and ask yourself what it is about your campaign in particular that seems to be motivating this behavior more than others. In order to turn the page on the trump era, were going to need a president , not just a candidate who can win. I have an idea of how we can stop sexism on the internet. We could nominate a woman for candidate for president of the United States. I think that might go a long way if we showed our stuff as a party. The other thing im going to talk about is really what is at the core of this issue between senator sanders and the Culinary Union nap union. That is this. These are hard working people, housekeepers like elizabeth and i met with last night, who have Health Care Plans that have been negotiated over time, sweat and blood. That is the truth for so Many Americans right now. Thank you. There are 149 million americans that would lose their Current Health insurance under senator sanders bill. Thats what it says on page 8. I want to turn over to my colleague chuck todd. I want to stay on this topic on this issue with the Culinary Union. Obviously their leaders are warning their members that your Health Care Plan will take away their Health Care Plan, take away private insurance completely. There are some democrats who like you a lot but worry that this plan, medicare for all is going to take away private insurance and that it goes too far. Are they right . No. Let me be very clear. Two points. For a hundred years from Teddy Roosevelt to barack obama, this country has been talking about the need to guarantee health care for all people. Yet today despite spending twice as much per capita, chuck, twice as much as any other major country on earth, we got 87 million who are uninsured or under insured. We got 60,000 people who die every year because they dont get to a doctor on time. Were getting ripped off outrageously by the greed and corruption of a pharmaceutical industry which in some cases charges us ten times more for the same drugs because of price fixing. 500,000 people go bankrupt every year because they cant afford medical bills. Let me be very clear to my good friends in the culinary workers union, a great union. I will never sign a bill that will reduce the Health Care Benefits they have. We will only expand it for them, for every union in the america and for the working class of this country. Senator warren, you were all in on medicare for all and then you have since came up with a transition plan. Is it because of the impact on unions . So i want to be clear. Ive been to the Culinary Unions health care facilities. Theyre terrific. You dont want to shut them down. You want to expand them. You want to see them all across nevada and all across this country. But we need to get everybodys Health Care Plan out here. Mayor buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. Its not a plan, its a power point. And amys plan is even less. Its like a postit note, insert plan here. Bernie has started very much has a good start, but instead of expanding and bringing in more people to help, instead his campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question or tries to fill in details about how to actually make this work. And then his owned a advisors s probably wont happen anyway. Look, health care is a crisis in this country. My approach to this is we need as much help for as many people as quickly as possible and bring in as many supporters as we can. And if we dont get it all the first time, take the win and come back into the fight to ask for more. Guys, im going to get everybody. Mayor buttigieg, she name checked you first. Ill let you go first. She name checked me second. Yes. Okay. Im more of a microsoft word guy. If you look at my plan, i dont know if there are any power points on it but you can find the document on peteforamerica. Com. Youll see it is a plan that softs the probl solves the problem, makes sure there is no such thing as an uninsured american and doesnt kick anyone off the plan they have. This idea that the Union Members dont know whats good for them is the exact kind of condescen