Republicans, Democrats, and pundits from all sides tore Mike Bloomberg apart after a dismal performance at his first debate

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Republicans, Democrats, and pundits from all sides tore Mike Bloomberg apart after a dismal performance at his first debate
Mike Bloomberg

REUTERS/Mike Blake

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Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City raises his hand to speak during the ninth Democratic debate at the Paris Theater in Las Vegas on February 19, 2020.

  • Mike Bloomberg's first performance on the Democratic debate stage in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday has been widely criticized by Democrats, Republicans, and pundits.
  • The billionaire's rivals targeted his company's use of nondisclosure agreements when female staff alleged harassment, and his endorsement of stop-and-frisk policies when he was Mayor of New York City.
  • Commentators on both sides of the political spectrum also noted that Bloomberg seemed ill-prepared to defend himself.
  • Fox News hosts, Democratic rivals, political pundits, journalists, and President Donald Trump all slammed his performance, but the campaign said the attention shows Bloomberg is a "winner."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The performance of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City at his first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night has been widely criticized by Democrats, Republicans, and pundits from all sides.

Bloomberg - who had never qualified for a debate until Wednesday's in Las Vegas, Nevada - was roundly attacked by many of his rivals within the first few minutes of the event, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren being the most vehement critic.

Off the debate stage, Bloomberg's performance was also torn apart by both the left and right. Prominent Democrats, like former candidate Andrew Yang and Obama advisor David Axelrod, criticized the billionaire's performance, as did President Donald Trump and his aides, and Fox News commentators.

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Here's what they had to say:

Democrat debate

REUTERS/Mike Blake

The Democratic candidates pose onstage before their debate in Las Vegas on February 19, 2020.

Trump and other conservative figures leapt to attack

Trump on Thursday morning mocked Bloomberg on Twitter as "stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent," calling his performance "perhaps the worst in the history of debates," and even launched personal attacks on his height.

Some of Trump's closest allies had similar criticisms.

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White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said Bloomberg's performance in the debate had deflated interest in him as a candidate.

Boris Epshteyn, an advisor to Trump's 2020 campaign and a former special assistant to Trump, also said Bloomberg's decision to enter the debate was a mistake.

Democrats also had scathing criticisms about his performance

Many of Bloomberg's Democratic also slammed his performance.

Warren made a campaign ad out of the footage of her taking on Bloomberg during the debate, in which she targeted his company Bloomberg LP's use of nondisclosure agreements after female employees alleged discrimination or harassment at the company.

Former Vice President Joe Biden also used clips of him debating Bloomberg over his endorsement of stop-and-frisk as Mayor of New York City to make a campaign ad after the debate. That policy had disproportionately targeted black and Latino men.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders also tweeted a clip of Bloomberg struggling to respond to Sanders' challenge over stop-and-frisk.

Andrew Yang, who recently dropped out of the presidential race, also told CNN after the debate that Bloomberg did not seem prepared enough to answer these questions on the debate stage.

And David Axelrod, a Democratic campaign strategist and senior advisor to former President Barack Obama, listed Bloomberg's performance as the worst of the night. "Kind of a disaster so far," he tweeted during the debate.

Media analysis also wasn't favorable to Bloomberg

During the debate Vox reporter Aaron Rupar noted that Bloomberg was criticized by Warren in the first few minutes, and said he never recovered.

Wall Street Journal editorial features editor James Taranto joked that Bloomberg would win if he could get everyone to stop talking about it by signing an NDA. He was referring to the moment Warren and Biden targeted Bloomberg over his company's use of those agreements.

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FiveThirtyEight founder and editor Nate Silver also noted that Bloomberg's betting odds crashed during the debate.

The outlet's coverage of Bloomberg's performance was also pretty scathing, with one reporter summing it up as "Bloomberg Had A Really Bad Debate. Like … Seriously."

Silver noted, however, that "the media shouldn't proclaim Bloomberg's campaign dead (or anything close) without seeing the evidence."

Business Insider's Grace Panetta wrote that Bloomberg "crumbled under pressure" and that he "failed at every turn to mount a strong or even coherent defense of himself and his record."

Similarly, The New York Times said that Bloomberg "looked very much like the out-of-practice politician he was before his tardy entry to the presidential campaign in November" and that he "did not make a good first impression."

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Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly also tweeted that Bloomberg was the "big loser" of the night, and said he was "not prepared for obvious attacks."

And Fox News host Sean Hannity shared a clip of Warren slamming Bloomberg, writing: "See ya Mike."

Conservative commentator and Daily Caller editor Ben Shapiro said that people are right in saying Bloomberg had an "awful" night, but was also critical of Sanders.

Bloomberg's campaign said criticism means he's a 'winner,' and he's 'just warming up'

The Bloomberg campaign claimed victory after the disastrous performance, however.

Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's campaign manager, said in a statement after the debate: "You know you are a winner when you are drawing attention from all the candidates. Everyone came to destroy Mike tonight. It didn't happen. Everyone wanted him to lose his cool. He didn't do it. He was the grownup in the room."

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The statement also said that Bloomberg had successfully targeted Sanders, the current Democratic frontrunner.

Sheekey also said Bloomberg would get better, saying in the statement: "He was just warming up tonight. We fully expect Mike will continue to build on tonight's performance when he appears on stage in South Carolina next Tuesday."

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