CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) – Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg on Monday clashed with front-runner Bernie Sanders over vandalism at Bloomberg’s Chicago office and their gun control stances, while centrist rival Pete Buttigieg was heckled at a labor march.
Sanders and his top rivals, including Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden, headed into an intense period of campaigning before Saturday’s South Carolina primary — their first big test with African-American voters — and the 14-state Super Tuesday contest on March 3 that will offer the largest number of votes so far.
Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucuses, which followed strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, has stoked concern among establishment Democrats who see the self-described democratic socialist as too liberal to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in November.
Here are some Monday highlights from the campaign trail:
GUN CONTROL
Tensions between the Bloomberg and Sanders camps have been rising since Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas, when Bloomberg asserted that Sanders would lose the general election to Trump should he become the Democratic nominee.
On Monday, Bloomberg began running ads on social media that attacked Sanders’ opposition in the past to legislation that created new background checks on gun purchases.
The ad also insinuated Sanders was once “bought by the NRA,” or National Rifle Association, a gun rights lobby group that ran ads in 1990 against a political opponent of Sanders who was proposing a ban on assault weapons.
Sanders’ campaign said the Vermont senator has a long record of backing bans on assault weapons and has never accepted NRA contributions. “He has never taken a dime of their money,” said Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver.
‘OLIGARCH’
The campaign for Bloomberg, a billionaire who is self-financing his presidential bid, said vandals on Sunday night defaced its Chicago office with the word “oligarch.”
Bloomberg’s campaign called on Sanders to denounce the vandalism, which followed a similar defacements of several Bloomberg offices in recent weeks.
