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From the opening bell, Democrats savaged New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and raised pointed questions about Bernie Sanders' take-no-prisoners politics during a contentious debate Wednesday night that threatened to further muddy the party's urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who was once a Republican, was forced to defend his record and past comments related to race, gender and his personal wealth in an occasionally rocky debate stage debut. Sanders, meanwhile, tried to beat back pointed questions about his embrace of democratic socialism and his health following a heart attack last year. (People, Jaffe and Price, 2/20)

Kaiser Health News: Scalpels Out: Democrats Make Slashing Attacks On Health Care Plans

Top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination torched one another’s proposals to reform the health care system Wednesday, as the contest to unify behind a single candidate to defeat President Donald Trump took a bitterly divisive turn. Minutes after Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, warmed up the debate audience in Las Vegas by describing the party as a spirited but unified family, most of the candidates abruptly shifted into attack mode — and not just against Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor making his first, belated appearance in the ninth debate. (Huetteman, Knight and Luthra, 2/20)

After eight debates that had sparks of conflict but were relatively cordial, Wednesday night brought two hours of nonstop political battle. Every candidate got attacked. Senator Elizabeth Warren sometimes attacked almost everyone in a single breath. Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg found himself facing incoming fire within the debate’s first seconds and looked very much like the out-of-practice politician he was before his tardy entry to the presidential campaign in November. (Goldmacher and Epstein, 2/20)

After disappointing showings in Iowa and New Hampshire and stagnant poll numbers, Warren came to fight. She has been trying to carve out a space for herself as the unity candidate, someone who can bridge Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan with moderates who think it’s too radical. But that’s led to some confusion from voters about where she stands. So on Wednesday, she tried to differentiate herself by punching at almost every candidate on the stage for their health-care plans, which she labeled ineffective (Buttigieg: “paper-thin version of a plan”) or too short (Klobuchar: It can “fit on a Post-it Note”). Most notably, on health care, she said Sanders was not being a team player or realistic — echoing a thematic attack from Buttigieg. “His campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question or tries to fill in details about how to actually make this work,” Warren said of Sanders. “And then his own advisers say that probably won’t happen anyway.” (Phillips, 2/20)

Warren has backed Medicare for All but wants to start first with an optional government plan, highlighting the tightrope she has tried to walk on the issue. She described her approach as “if we don’t get it all the first time, take the win” and then come back for more. (Sullivan, 2/19)

ELIZABETH WARREN: Buttigieg's health care plan is "a thin version of a plan." PETE BUTTIGIEG: His own proposal "is the plan that solves the problem." THE FACTS: Warren, a Massachusetts senator, is quick to dismiss a plan that would cover virtually all U.S. citizens and legal residents. An analysis of health care overhaul plans by the Urban Institute and the Commonwealth Fund found that an approach like the one advocated by Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, would reduce the number of uninsured people from 32 million to below 7 million, mainly people without legal permission to be in the country. (2/19)

“Let's talk about democratic socialism," Sanders said, adding: "We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. The problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, 'We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.” Applause rang out. “When Donald Trump gets $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury condominiums, that's socialism for the rich,” Sanders said. “We have to subsidize Walmart’s workers on Medicaid and food stamps because the wealthiest family in America pays starvation wages. That's socialism for the rich. I believe in Democratic socialism for working people. Not billionaires. Health care for all. Educational opportunity for all.” (Caputo, McCaskill and Naranjo, 2/19)

There was little in the debate to suggest that Mr. Sanders, the national front-runner and the favorite to win Nevada’s caucuses on Saturday, had been knocked off balance, and the pile-on against Mr. Bloomberg had the potential to work in Mr. Sanders’s favor by keeping the focus of hostilities elsewhere. But Mr. Sanders, too, was pressed to address some of the persistent questions about his candidacy, including whether he would release a fuller version of his medical records and why his candidacy appears to inspire uniquely vitriolic behavior by some of his supporters on the internet. Mr. Sanders, Vermont’s junior senator, insisted that nearly all of his online fans were good and decent people, but said he would “disown those people” who behave in deplorable ways. (Burns and Martin, 2/20)

Buttigieg and Sanders battle over curbing the online behavior of supporters. “I think you have to accept some responsibility.” —Pete Buttigieg. Why this matters: Mr. Sanders defended the online activity of his supporters, some of whom are referred to as Bernie Bros, after leaders of the Culinary Union said they had been attacked from some of the senator’s advocates online and by phone. Mr. Sanders said of his supporters that “99.9% of them are decent human beings,” but if any of them “make ugly remarks” or “attack trade union leaders, I disown those people.” Mr. Buttigieg suggested that Mr. Sanders hadn’t done enough to tamp down the actions of his own supporters, and challenged the senator to ask himself: “Why did this pattern arise? Why is it especially the case among your supporters?” (Thomas, 2/19)

Women in the leadership of a Nevada union that opposes his healthcare agenda were swarmed last week with vulgar and threatening emails, phone calls and Twitter posts. In the days following, Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Michael R. Bloomberg all questioned Sanders’ commitment to curbing the provocations. (Finnegan, 2/19)

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. claimed undue credit for being the “first” candidate to introduce a public option. This is exaggerated. Four candidates — Mr. Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and Mr. Bloomberg — support a public option, which anyone can buy into but retains private insurance. The concept has been around for many years. (2/19)

Kaiser Health News: Obamacare A Disgrace? Biden Highlights Bloomberg’s Negative Remarks About The Affordable Care Act.

Sparring over health care during the Nevada Democratic presidential primary debate, former Vice President Joe Biden took issue with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s record on the Affordable Care Act. “From the moment we passed that signature legislation, Mike called it a disgrace,” Biden said, a claim he repeated another time during the debate. Bloomberg sought to refute that charge, arguing that he defended the law and believed it should be expanded. (Luthra and Knight, 2/20)

“You know that from the moment from the moment we passed that signature legislation, Mike called it a disgrace.”— Biden. Biden gets this mostly right, but some context is required. In a speech in 2010, after the Affordable Care Act was passed, Bloomberg gave a speech at Dartmouth College. “We passed a health care bill that does absolutely nothing to fix the big health-care problems in this country. It is just a disgrace,” he said, according to a report by CNN. “The president, in all fairness, started out by pointing out what the big problems were, but then turned it over to Congress, which didn’t pay any attention to any of those big problems and just created another program that’s going to cost a lot of money.” He went on to say: “It’s really sad because they say they’ve insured or provided coverage for another 45 million people." (Kessler, Rizzo and Cahlan, 2/19)

Bloomberg did in fact call the Affordable Care Act a "disgrace" in 2010, and there's video — Biden just put it in an online ad. The former New York City mayor's health care plan includes a proposal to "build on the ACA to achieve universal health coverage." (Timm, 2/19)

Sanders said Wednesday night that "the health care industry made $100 billion in profits." "Somehow or another, Canada can provide universal health care to all their people," he said. "U.K. can do it, France can do it, Germany could, all of Europe can do it. Gee whiz. Somehow or another, we are the only major country on Earth that can't do it. Why is that?" (Miranda, 2/20)

Tensions also rose between Mr. Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who are competing for the party’s center lane and who engaged in a series of testy, often personal exchanges. After Ms. Klobuchar pushed for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, Mr. Buttigieg interjected to attack her record, including her vote in 2007 to make English the official language of the U.S. “You voted to confirm the head of Customs and Border Protection under Trump, who was one of the architects of the family-separation policy. You voted to make English the national language,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “Do you know the message that sends?” (Siddiqui, Parti and Collins, 2/20)

Politically, Buttigieg and Klobuchar are both hawking middle-of-the-road, tell-it-like-it-is personas, which they argue Democrats need to carry the Midwest, the region they call home. They are both competing to emerge as the main moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders, the current polling frontrunner. But the rivalry runs deeper than their political positioning. Klobuchar has regularly spoken about sexism on the campaign trail, explaining that she is willing to call out “double standards” for female candidates because “we have to grapple with the fact that some people think a woman can’t win” against Trump, she told POLITICO in January. (Schneider, 2/20)

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ refusal to release more medical records, months after vowing to offer “comprehensive” details after his heart attack, is the latest reminder voters know relatively little about the health of the men and women seeking the most powerful job in the world — including some who would turn 80 in their first terms. None of the top dozen presidential candidates this cycle has released his or her “full” health records, instead offering doctor’s notes that paper over decades of medical trauma, ranging from heart attacks to brain surgery. (Diamond, 2/19)

Kaiser Health News: Sanders’ Claim That Buttigieg Is ‘Favorite Of The Health Care Industry’ Is Broad And Needs Context

As Pete Buttigieg gained momentum in the Democratic presidential primary race ― finishing second in the New Hampshire primary and a front-runner in the Iowa caucuses ― he has increasingly been on the receiving end of shade from his rivals. The campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for instance, distributed talking points that zeroed in on fundraising, saying that “Pete Buttigieg is a favorite candidate of Wall Street and the health care industry.” (Knight, 2/19)

Former longtime Nevada lawmaker Harry Reid has declined to endorse a candidate ahead of the state's Democratic caucus, but he did speak strongly against Medicare for All, the hallmark policy plan of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign."I think the world of Bernie Sanders," Reid said in an interview for the "Powerhouse Politics" podcast on Wednesday, speaking highly of his former Senate colleague. But Reid, who served as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, including as majority leader for eight years, said it didn't matter which candidate comes out in support of Sanders' signature health care plan: "I’m against it." (Scanlan, 2/19)

How union benefits would be affected by Democratic presidential candidates’ health insurance plans will likely get national attention tonight as six of the contenders seeking to oust President Donald Trump face off... Culinary Workers Local 226 is always a big deal in Nevada politics, but the union's critique of “Medicare for All” government-run coverage has put them even more in the spotlight ahead of Saturday's Democratic caucus here. (Lesniewski and McIntire, 2/19)

Democrats who want to be Republican U.S. Rep. John Carter's challenger in November think focusing on health care will turn the 31st District north of Austin blue. But Republicans, who have long held the seat, say their opponents won't have much luck without a high-profile candidate like 2018's MJ Hegar, who is now focusing on a U.S. Senate run. Democratic candidates Eric Hanke, Donna Imam, Dan Janjigian, Christine Mann and Tammy Young are vying for their party's nomination in the district includes suburban Williamson County and the more rural Bell County. They say rising health care costs and support for military veterans are voters' top priorities — and most want to expand access to affordable health care to address those concerns. (Tatum, 2/20)