‘NRA, I’m Coming for You’ & Other Key Quotes From the South Carolina Debate

“I’m hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight,” Sen. Bernie Sanders joked at Tuesday's Democratic debate in South Carolina.

During the opening comments portion of the evening, Michael Bloomberg told Sanders that “Russia is helping you get elected"; Sen. Elizabeth Warren insisted “I would make a better president than Bernie"; Tom Steyer said that while the Vermont senator has the correct analysis of the economy, “I don’t like his solutions”; and former Vice President Joe Biden invoked a nearby African American church where nine worshippers were killed by a white supremacist: "Bernie voted five times against the Brady Bill [gun control legislation] and wanted a waiting period of 12 hours."

But it wasn't all Bernie bashing. Read on for the highlights of the debate...

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

“I am very proud of being Jewish. I actually lived in Israel for some months. But what I happen to believe is that, right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu you have a reactionary racist who is running that country.”

After a round of applause, Sanders continued:

“I happen to believe that what our foreign policy in the Middle East should be about is absolutely protecting the independence and security of Israel, but you cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people. We have got to have a policy that reaches out to the Palestinians and the [Israelis]. And in answer to your question, that will come within the context of bringing nations together in the Middle East.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden

“If I'm elected — NRA, I'm coming for you, and gun manufacturers, I'm gonna take you on and I'm gonna beat you.”

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren

"My secretary of education will be someone who has taught in public school. My secretary of education will be someone who believes in public education. And my secretary of education will believe that public dollars should stay in public schools."

Warren then promoted her proposal to invest $800 billion in public schools.

Bonus quote on rolling back the filibuster:

"I've been in the Senate. What I've seen: gun safety legislation introduced, get a majority and then doesn't pass because of the filibuster. Understand this: The filibuster is giving a veto to the gun industry."

She continued:

"Until we're willing to dig in and say that if Mitch Mcconnell is going to do to the next Democratic president what he did to President Obama, and that is try to block every single thing he does, that we are willing to roll back the filibuster, go with the majority vote, and do what needs to be done for the American people."

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Re: an all-white stage discussing people of color:

“I come to this with some humility because I’m conscious of the fact that there are seven white people on this stage. None of us — none of us have the experience, the lived experience o f— for example, walking down the street, or in a mall, and feeling feeling eyes on us, regarding us as dangerous, without knowing the first thing about us justice because of the color of our skin.”

Bonus quote:

I'm not looking forward to an election that "comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s.”

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Klobuchar said she'd be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, just not like Trump has:

"He literally thinks he can go over and bring a hot dish to the dictator next door and he thinks everything is going to be fine. He has not done it with our allies."

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg

Bloomberg was the first contender to mention the coronavirus:

"One of the great problems today - you read about the virus - what's really happening here is the president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago. So there's nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing. And he's defunded the Centers for Disease Control, so we don't have the organization we need. Is is a very serious thing. As you see, the stock market is falling apart because people are really worried and they should be. We don't have anybody to respond."

Billionaire executive Tom Steyer

On the great divide:

"Let me say that I got into this race because I wanted to fight for economic justice, for racial justice and to make sure we had climate justice for the American people. And I am scared. If we cannot pull this party together, if we go to one of those extremes, we take a terrible risk of re-electing Donald Trump."

—Hundredaire executive Josh Herman

-Josh Herman