Sanders faces withering attacks as rivals suggest he'd squander election to Trump

With a make-or-break week looming, the remaining Democratic presidential candidates trained their fire Tuesday night on front-runner Bernie Sanders as they sought to slow his momentum by suggesting his socialist policies would squander the party's chances to unseat Donald Trump this fall.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg started the pile-on early, suggesting that Russia is aiding Sanders’ campaign so Trump will get re-elected.

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said that a Trump-Sanders race would achieve Russia’s objective of sowing chaos in the country.

“I’ll tell you what the Russians want. They don’t have a political party. They want chaos,” Buttigieg said. “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.”

Bloomberg's treatment of women again surfaced as an issue, as he was forced to deal anew with the issue of non-disclosure agreements, an issue he faced last week at the Nevada debate.

On the heels of Bloomberg’s Nevada debate dustup with Sen. Warren about NDA’s, Bloomberg announced last Friday that his company identified three women who had signed non-disclosure agreements about complaints they had about comments they said Bloomberg had made. Bloomberg’s statement said that his company would release those women from their agreements if they contacted the organization to request release.

During a debate segment about gun violence Sen. Elizabeth Warren advocated for eliminating the filibuster in the Senate in order to pass gun control legislation. Buttigieg also expressed support for the idea of eliminating the filibuster, going after Sanders.

“How are we gonna deliver a revolution if you won’t even support a rule change?” Buttigieg asked the Vermont senator now leading in most national polls. “It has got to go because otherwise Washington will not deliver.” 

South Carolina is the fourth and final state before the all-important 14-state Super Tuesday blitz next week.

While former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to win the South Carolina primary later this week, Sanders came into Tuesday's debate at Charleston as the Democratic frontrunner with more delegates than his competitors and momentum coming from his wide margin of victory in the Nevada caucuses last week.

Debate participants included Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders (I-Vermont), Warren (D-Mass.), Bloomberg and businessman Tom Steyer.