It only took nine debates and eight months, but the Democratic candidates for president have finally taken their gloves off and gone for each other. And – with the likely exception of Mike Bloomberg’s supporters – it seems that most viewers have been delighted.
From the very start of the Las Vegas debate, the tone for the night was set. It all kicked off when Elizabeth Warren branded Michael Bloomberg a “billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians” in her first answer.
Bloomberg was then attacked from all sides over his problematic legacy as mayor and history of unsettling remarks about women.
Soon enough, a light backdrop of memes and jokes began to accompany the tearing apart of Bloomberg, who had just joined the debate stage for the first time since announcing his candidacy in November.
For many, the general message was a simple “RIP”:
However, Bloomberg wasn’t the only candidate getting beaten up on stage. The other big battle of the night was between Senator Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Things started to go awry when she asked Buttigieg if he was calling her “dumb”, after he criticized her recent inability to name the president of Mexico.
The two continued to lay into each other at any given opportunity, their obvious mutual dislike serving as an inspiration to those watching the debate online:
In the end the general consensus seems to be that Warren’s attacks on Bloomberg won her the debate. And she definitely triumphed across two semi-significant metrics: she had the longest speaking time out of any of the candidates and was the most-tweeted-about candidate of the night.
Meanwhile, the biggest loser of the night was unambiguously Bloomberg, who, after spending more than $400m to get into the race, may be starting to get buyer’s remorse.