Democrats bare fangs at Bloomberg in fiery debate

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg endured a punishing assault in his debut Democratic presidential debate Wednesday from rivals who savaged him for parachuting in late and throwing astronomical amounts of money at the race.

The Las Vegas showdown came at a tense time in the party's nomination race, with leftist firebrand Bernie Sanders coalescing as the frontrunner and some challengers fighting for survival.

US media magnate Bloomberg found himself targeted from the start, as candidates from Sanders to former vice president Joe Biden impugned the man whose sudden prominence in polling has scrambled the race to defeat President Donald Trump.

"Understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another," Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a fiery attack on Bloomberg.

"Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies," she added.

Sanders hit Bloomberg hard on his vast wealth at a time of "grotesque" income inequality in America.

"Mike Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans," Sanders said in one of the night's many abrasive moments. "That's immoral."

All eyes were on Bloomberg's first appearance on the debate stage after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign advertising.

He endured a very public vetting and struggled to highlight his roles as problem solver, businessman, city manager and philanthropist.

He found himself on the defensive when pressed to explain sexual harassment claims against him and employees, his delay in releasing his taxes and more.

Political analyst Aaron Kall of the University of Michigan said Bloomberg proved "really weak" in the face of the onslaught.

Bloomberg at one point managed to push back forcefully against Sanders, saying if the self-declared democratic socialist is the nominee, "we will have Donald Trump for another four years."

But Trump himself was dismissive of Bloomberg's performance onstage.

"He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent. If this doesn't knock him out of the race, nothing will," the president tweeted.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll out Wednesday showed Sanders with a commanding double-digit lead nationally, at 32 percent. Sagging former frontrunner Biden was second at 16 percent, followed by Bloomberg at 14 and Warren at 12.