UPDATE 1-'Chaos ... coming our way' - Top quotes from the Democratic presidential debate

Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders came under attack from his rivals on Tuesday as seven candidates competing to take on U.S. President Donald Trump in November debated in Charleston, South Carolina. Here are quotes from the televised event:

ELIZABETH WARREN

"Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I would make a better president than Bernie," the U.S. senator from Massachusetts said. "And the reason for that is that getting a progressive agenda enacted is going to be really hard, and it's going to take someone who digs into the details to make it happen."

"We need a president who is going to dig in and actually do the hard work," she said. "I dug in, I did the work and then Bernie’s team trashed me for it."

JOE BIDEN

The former vice president pointed out Sanders' voting against the 1993 Brady bill that imposed mandatory background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases. "Bernie voted five times against the Brady bill ... and wanted a waiting period of 12 hours," Biden said.

Referring to the 2015 mass shooting at a church near the debate venue, Biden added: "I'm not saying (Sanders is) responsible for the nine deaths, but that man would not have been able to get that weapon with the waiting period."

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

"Vladimir Putin thinks that Donald Trump should be president of the United States and that’s why Russia is helping you get elected, so you lose to him," the former New York mayor said to Sanders, referring to a recent report that Russia was trying to help the senator from Vermont win the Democratic nomination. Bloomberg warned of dire circumstances for the Democratic Party if Sanders became the 2020 nominee.

"If you keep on going, we will elect Bernie, Bernie will lose to Donald Trump, and Donald Trump and the House (of Representatives) and the Senate and some of the statehouses will all go red and then, between gerrymandering and appointing judges, for the next 20 or 30 years we are going to live with this catastrophe."

PETE BUTTIGIEG

"I will tell you what the Russians want. They don't have a political party. They want chaos, and chaos is what is coming our way," said the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. "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. Think about what that will be like for this country." Buttigieg also took a shot at Sanders for what he said were the shifting costs of the senator's ambitious Medicare for All plan.

"I can tell you exactly how it all adds up. It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, and the inability to get the Senate into Democratic hands. The time has come to stop acting like the presidency is the only thing that matters. Not only is this a way to get Donald Trump re-elected, we got a House to worry about, we got a Senate to worry about."

TOM STEYER

The billionaire environmentalist warned that the Democratic Party is being threatened by polarizing candidates, alluding to Sanders, a democratic socialist, and Bloomberg, a former Republican. "We are looking at a party that has decided that we’re either going to support someone who is a democratic socialist or somebody who has a long history of being a Republican. ... I am scared, if we cannot pull this party together, if we go to one of those extremes, we take a terrible risk of re-electing Donald Trump."

"That is a risk that will hurt the American people in a way that we, none of us on this stage, should be willing to risk."

AMY KLOBUCHAR

“I like Bernie, we came in with each other into the Senate, but I do not think he’s the best person to lead the ticket," said Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota.

BERNIE SANDERS

Sanders deflected attacks, particularly from Biden, on his gun rights voting record and addressed a report that Russia was supporting his campaign for the nomination. "Here is the good news, because of all these disgusting and horrific mass shootings, the American people now understand we must be aggressive on gun safety, not dictated to by the NRA and I am proud that I have a D- rating from the NRA and if I get elected, it will get worse than that."

Sanders also said, "And let me tell Mr. Putin, who interfered in the 2016 election, try to bring Americans against Americans, hey, Mr. Putin, if I'm president of the United States, trust me, you're not going to interfere in any more American elections." 

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