Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts took the debate stage Wednesday night with one task: reassert herself in a race where attention has slipped away from her. And she did not wait to be called on.
After Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont answered the opening question — about what it would take to beat President Trump, and why he believed he was better equipped than Michael R. Bloomberg to do it — and Mr. Bloomberg responded, Ms. Warren raised her hand and interjected.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians,” she said. “And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
The message was clear, and twofold. This debate, to no one’s surprise, would be a no-holds-barred attack on Mr. Bloomberg. And Ms. Warren would not be ignored.
“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 like redlining and stop-and-frisk,” she continued. “Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is. But understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”
After finishing third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire, Ms. Warren is fighting to regain momentum.
Despite finishing ahead of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, and polling higher nationally than former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., she has received less news coverage in the past week than either of them. And an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday included hypothetical general-election matchups between President Trump and five Democratic candidates, but not Ms. Warren.
In the days leading up to the debate, she went on the attack against Mr. Bloomberg, saying he had essentially bought his spot onstage and suggesting bitingly that his presence would give the other candidates — herself included — an opportunity to demonstrate how they would take on President Trump in a general election.
As the debate went on, Ms. Warren continued to assert herself, particularly in a response on health care that targeted Mr. Buttigieg, Mr. Sanders and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Here is a transcript of that response, which came after a question about the powerful Culinary Workers Union’s opposition to “Medicare for all” on the basis that it would take away the health care plan the union worked hard to secure.
WARREN: So I want to be clear. I’ve been to the culinary union’s health care facilities. They’re terrific. You don’t want to shut them down; you want to expand them. You want to see them all across Nevada and all across this country.
But we need to get everybody’s health care plan out here. Mayor Buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. It’s not a plan; it’s a PowerPoint. And Amy’s plan is even less. It’s like a Post-It note: ‘Insert plan here.’
Bernie has started very much — has a good start — but instead of expanding and bringing in more people to help, instead his campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question or tries to fill in details about how to actually make this work. And then his own advisers say, ‘Eh, probably won’t happen anyway.’ Look, health care is a crisis in this country. My approach to this is we need as much help for as many people as quickly as possible, and bring in as many supporters as we can. And if we don’t get it all the first time, take the win and come back into the fight to ask for more.