The Political Fallout from the Democratic Debate

VAN JONES, FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: It is very, very hard to know. We cannot tell is this a Bloomberg bubble? He is spending an unbelievable amount of money. He’s a multi-billionaire, you know, 35, 36, some people say $60 billion and he’s willing, apparently, to spend a couple billion on this election. That has never happened in the history of our party. The entire party last year in the general election spent a billion. This guy might spend that for himself. And so, he’s rising in the polls. He has ads everywhere. You cannot watch television in the United States on almost any channel in any state without seeing almost wall-to-wall Bloomberg ads. He’s also buying up all of the talent that every one of these candidates who’s dropped out, he’s reached out to their campaign coordinators or organizers, their media people and he’s just buying up the talent. Does this mean he has now a kind of billion-dollar Teflon suit and no matter what you throw at him, he’s going to be able to prevail? We do not know. But Elizabeth Warren last night, I’ve been in criminal justice a long time, that was a murder scene. That was a premeditated murder scene. She took him to task and went after his electability argument. He’s saying, I’m a bigger billionaire than Trump. I can take Trump out. And she’s saying, yes, you have a lot of money, you’re building a big machine but you also have a record. And that record, when it comes to women, when it comes to people of color is potentially toxic one for a general election candidate who is a Democratic. And we just don’t know this clash of titans and identities and ideas how it’s going to work out.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I’ll get back to the record in a second. But first, I want to ask you Vanessa. As a woman and as somebody who was in the room, you know, moderating the debate, how did Bloomberg and the other candidates come across, and from your perspective, the woman issue which is a big issue for 50 percent of the voters or at least 50 percent are women, how do you think that came across last night?

VANESSA HAUC, CLIMATE JOURNALIST, TELEMUNDO: Well, I think it was a very, very important moment at the debate, Christiane. You have to remember that we have the #MeToo movement here in the United States that was so powerful for women. I mean, thousands of women got out to the street to march and to raise their voices precisely against this type of situations. So, Senator Warren was very, very outspoken and she really highlight the issues that Bloomberg is going to have to answer in this election. I think all the candidates have been campaigning for months and investing their time and their energy trying to communicate their platforms, the message to the communities. And Michael Bloomberg comes and in a matter of a couple weeks spend more than $300 million in campaigns, in ads on TV, and definitely, I think that was one of the points that the other candidates were not happy with.