UPDATE 5-Sanders and Buttigieg take heavy fire at Democratic presidential debate

(Adds quotes, details throughout) By James Oliphant and Michael Martina

MANCHESTER, N.H., Feb 7 - Democratic presidential contenders Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the top finishers in Iowa's nominating contest, faced a barrage of criticism on Friday from rivals who said they did not have what it takes to lead the party to victory against Republican Donald Trump. In a heated debate in New Hampshire just four days before the state's pivotal primary, Sanders and Buttigieg came under heavy fire for their views and experience after the two finished in a dead heat in the nation's first Democratic nominating contest in Iowa earlier this week.

Democratic rivals asked whether Sanders, a U.S. senator and self-identified democratic socialist and Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, could stand up to Trump in the Nov. 3 election given their vulnerabilities. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who finished a distant fifth in Iowa, said Sanders would not attract the kind of centrist voters needed to win.

"Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is a candidate who will bring people in from the middle," Klobuchar said at the eighth Democratic debate. "I think we need someone to head up this ticket that actually brings people with her instead of shutting them out." Former Vice President Joe Biden, reeling from a disappointing fourth-place finish in Iowa, said Trump would have a handy label for Sanders, 78, a leader in the party's progressive wing.

"Bernie has labeled himself, not me, a democratic socialist. I think that’s the label that the president is going to lay on everyone running with Bernie if he is the nominee," Biden said. Biden also questioned whether Buttigieg had enough experience to face off with Trump. Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of South Bend, a city with a population of 100,000.

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer said Buttigieg has not been able to show much appeal to the black and Latino voters who are crucial to a winning Democratic campaign. "Unless you can appeal to the diverse parts of the Democratic Party, including specifically the black community, including specifically Latinos, if you can’t do that, then we can’t beat Donald Trump in November," Steyer said.

Sanders, who has called for a political revolution that will attract new voters, said "the way to beat Trump is by having the largest voter turnout in the history of this country." He said he could appeal to working class voters who have given up on the political process "because they don’t believe anybody is hearing their pain, perceiving their pain, feeling their pain. And we’ve got to bring young people into the political process."

Buttigieg said the Washington insider experience of some of his rivals was no longer what was needed, and that it was time for a new generation of leadership. Historically, candidates who win the Iowa caucuses see a boost in New Hampshire, and two opinion polls released this week showed Buttigieg within striking distance of Sanders, who has consistently been atop the field in the state.

But with controversy surrounding the Iowa results, New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday takes on added importance in the race for the Democratic nomination. After the performance in Iowa, Biden's campaign on Friday said that Anita Dunn, a longtime Democratic strategist and former White House aide to President Barack Obama, would assume a larger leadership role within the campaign.

Aides to Biden downplayed the move, noting that Dunn has been advising the campaign all along. "This is not a reshuffling," one aide said. "This is giving her a slightly broader portfolio."

Also onstage at St. Anselm College in Manchester were U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and businessman Andrew Yang, who qualified for the debate after missing the earlier one in Iowa. Notably absent was Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire former New York mayor, who is not competing in New Hampshire but has been assembling a formidable campaign operation in later voting states. Although Bloomberg has been ascending in national polls, he has been funding his own campaign and not taking donations, so he failed to meet the donations criteria for the debate.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)