One thing the Democrats have not lacked on this election is debates. Once a monthly occurrence, Americans everywhere seem to be tuning in to politicians fighting over their policies every other week as the primaries and caucuses approach us. This past Wednesday, six Democrats faced off in Las Vegas for the ninth debate, and it was full of gloves off, brutal attacking of all nominees on stage.

Another small group considering the nominees once went over 20, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, former South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar had the most tense debate out of the entire election cycle. With controversial topics such as health care, electability and Bloomberg’s past actions covered, columnists have said that this was the most hostile debate yet. Winners and losers of this debate will be found below.

Winner #1: Elizabeth Warren

After controversy has been placed on America’s media companies for not equally covering Warren’s campaign, she came out Wednesday stronger than ever with the best debate performance in the entire election. Warren was able to take on Bloomberg in the most effective way possible by hitting him with his past actions regarding sexual harassment and discrimination of women in his companies. The entire stage also went after Bloomberg for his former approval of the stop-and-frisk policy while he was mayor of New York City. 

Besides exposing Bloomberg, Warren did an excellent job of taking on all of her opponents with the errors in their policy and it has drastically improved her spot in the race. After the New Hampshire primary showing that debate performance really does matter, Warren made herself a serious threat for the other candidates and proved that her effective attacks on Bloomberg would be the same way she takes on President Donald Trump if the nomination is hers. In fact, one of her opening quotes was the performance of the night, “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse faced lesbians. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

Winner #2: Amy Klobuchar

Not only were the women on stage attacked from all sides during the debate, they were able to once again fight back and show the power they have. Although Klobuchar had a very rocky performance at the beginning, she ultimately made her case and was able to properly retaliate to the immense claims against her. 

The most unfair event of the night was when a moderator asked Klobuchar how she could know about U.S.-Mexican trade when she did not even know the name of the Mexican president. This was very out of line and Buttigieg should not have been pressuring Klobuchar for this error because of how petty the situation was. However, Klobuchar honed in her excellent debating skills and was capable of making herself one of the night’s best victors.

Loser #1: Michael Bloomberg 

Anyone with two eyes watching the debate were clearly able to see that Bloomberg was getting attacked over and over again on the stage. However, Bloomberg was the furthest thing from prepared after these attacks and was digging his grave lower and lower. His largest hit was when Warren attacked him for the multiple non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that he has with women who have been sexually harassed by him in his business. After not directly stating how many NDAs he has and if he would allow them to be released or not, Bloomberg walked off the stage more misogynistic than ever and took a hard blow. 

He has since allowed three women off of their NDAs and has sparked tweets of people proclaiming “Warren gets things done.” With Warren’s extremely successful performance and Bloomberg’s weak one, this was just a glimpse of how she can handle Trump.

Loser #2: Pete Buttigieg

Frankly, I almost did not place the former mayor on the loser side but immediately had to after seeing his method of attempting to steal Klobuchar supporters. When the situation of the unfair Mexican president question occurred, instead of defending Klobuchar like Warren did, Buttigieg jumped on her error as a way to get voters and it made me reevaluate the former mayor’s character. 

Even though he had some good performances earlier in the night such as when he said neither Bloomberg, a centrist who was a Republican mayor, or Sanders, a democratic socialist, should get the nomination because they both are not even Democrats. With this quote, many Democrats across social media have begun to reestablish their choice for the nomination because they feel that the leading nominee and the up-and-coming nominee do not truly represent the values of the Democratic Party. Despite this success, Buttigieg really took a hit to his character on Wednesday and is in need of showing his warmth to fellow nominees rather than brute cruelty.