“If you think the last four years has been chaotic, divisive, toxic, exhausting, imagine spending the better part of 2020 with Bernie Sanders versus Donald Trump,” said former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“Russia is helping you get elected,” former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg told Sanders, “so you will lose to [Trump].”
Businessman Tom Steyer told Sanders, “The answer is not for the government to take over the private sector.”
Former vice president Joe Biden pointed out that Sanders voted against an assault-weapons ban and in 2012 said "we should primary Barack Obama.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) declared that she “would make a better president than Bernie.”
And Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) informed Sanders that his “math does not add up" and that “we should pay attention to where the voters of this country are, Bernie.”
Sanders scoffed, smirked, grimaced and glowered. “Not true!” he interjected, and “categorically incorrect!” He shook his head and waved his hand dismissively. “I’m hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight — I wonder why,” the front-runner said.
He chose to parry by shouting counter-assaults — against Bloomberg, against Buttigieg, against Biden. The others joined in, and soon it was an all-out food fight, with rhetorical mashed potatoes landing everywhere. Warren hit Bloomberg, who hit Sanders. Biden hit Klobuchar, while Steyer hit Sanders and Bloomberg. Biden hit Steyer, and Warren pummeled Bloomberg.
The melee brought a sickening sense of deja vu.