The Latest: Warren calls for party unity in taking on Trump

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the Clark County Democratic Party "Kick-Off to Caucus 2020" event, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the Clark County Democratic Party "Kick-Off to Caucus 2020" event, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 presidential campaign (all times local):

2 p.m.

Elizabeth Warren is preaching Democratic unity in taking on President Donald Trump, a challenge she framed as an existential crisis for America.

Warren, having partly recovered her voice after catching a cold, said at a Monday afternoon town hall in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson that America is at its best when it takes on a problem.

She said the 2020 election “is the moment in history that we have been called to,” likening it to the challenges America overcame from its founding revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II.

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The Massachusetts senator also spoke about how she’s adopted policy plans and hired staff from Democrats who have dropped out of the race, including New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Obama administration housing chief Julián Castro, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Warren said culling those ideas builds a Democratic Party and coalition “that works for all of us.”

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12:50 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is joking that he’d let Donald Trump stay in the White House after the November election “if he’s willing to do the chores.”

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was asked at two consecutive town halls in Nevada on Monday about what he’d do should Trump refuse to leave the presidency after losing the election.

After making the same joke at each stop, Buttigieg said the question makes it important to win the general election by as big a margin as possible.

He told a group of veterans in Reno that he wanted to win “big enough that this election is beyond cheating distance.” Buttigieg repeated that at a Carson City town hall and tied it to his pitch that he can assemble the broadest coalition in November.

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11:45 a.m.

Nevada’s Democratic Party says more than 26,000 people cast votes during the first two days of early voting in the state’s presidential caucuses.

The state party said Monday that more than half of those voting on Saturday, the first day, were first-time caucus goers.

Nevada Democrats are under intense pressure to pull off smooth caucuses and had to reconfigure their plans after problems at Iowa’s caucuses.

For the first time, Nevada’s Democratic Party is offering four days of early caucus voting, when voters fill out a paper ballot marking at least their top three choices for president. Those votes will be combined with in-person votes at about 2,000 precincts in caucus meetings next Saturday.

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Democratic officials did not report any major problems over the weekend, but party officials were overwhelmed by long lines at some caucus sites.

About 84,000 people participated in Nevada’s Democratic presidential caucuses in 2016.

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11:30 a.m.

Amy Klobuchar is joining White House rivals Tom Steyer, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in launching Spanish-language television ads in Nevada.

The Minnesota senator on Monday announced a television and radio ad in Las Vegas and Reno as early voting is underway for the state’s Democratic caucuses.

Latinos make up 29% of Nevada’s population and the Democratic candidates are courting them in the early state before final caucus voting Saturday.

Klobuchar comes from a mostly white state and is among the candidates working to prove she can reach out to diverse groups of voters in Nevada and beyond. She stumbled in an interview last week when she couldn’t name Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Her ad features a Spanish-speaking narrator who says Klobuchar is a candidate who can actually defeat President Donald Trump and fight for better health care and prices for prescription drugs.

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8:10 a.m.

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg is taking lots of heat from his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. They portray him as an opportunist who’s trying to buy his way to the White House.

Now he’s pushing back.

On Monday, the former New York mayor posted a video mashup on Twitter showing aggressive and threatening comments by people who appear to be Bernie Sanders supporters, juxtaposed with Sanders calling for “civil discourse.”

Bloomberg tweets: “We need to unite to defeat Trump in November. This type of ‘energy’ is not going to get us there.”

That was a slap at claims by Sanders that he is commanding the excitement and energy in the Democratic race.

Most of the leading candidates are campaigning in Nevada for the caucuses Saturday. Bloomberg isn’t competing there. But he might qualify for his first debate, coming Wednesday.