The rhetoric is heating up ahead of the Nevada caucuses, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) targeting billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who entered the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination race late and has gained traction by spending millions of his own personal fortune.

While Sanders was speaking in Las Vegas on Saturday, he targeted Bloomberg for not only being an unexciting candidate but for his past policies.

“Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump,” Sanders said.

“We will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Donald Trump if that candidate [Bloomberg] pursued, advocated for, and enacted racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear,” Sanders said.

“We will not defeat Donald Trump with a candidate who in 2015 stated, and I quote, ‘I, for example, am not in favor, have never been in favor, of raising the minimum wage.’”

Donald Trump last week tweeted about Bloomberg’s appeal, abilities, and Sanders’ campaign against him.

Mini Mike is a 5’4” mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians. No boxes please. He hates Crazy Bernie and will, with enough money, possibly stop him. Bernie’s people will go nuts! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020

“Mini Mike is a 5’4″ mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians. No boxes please. He hates Crazy Bernie and will, with enough money, possibly stop him. Bernie’s people will go nuts!” Trump tweeted.

Fox News reported on further details of Sanders’ speech:

Further remarks from Sanders were aimed at Bloomberg’s opposition to Barack Obama’s tax increases on the wealthy, his support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and what Sanders said was Bloomberg’s insistence that the 2007-09 financial crisis was caused by the end of the banking practice of “red-lining” – thus making loans more accessible to low-income people — rather than the misdeeds of “crooks on Wall Street.” Bloomberg has also had to deal with problems he created for himself, such as stop-and-frisk. The anti-crime policy appeared to work for Bloomberg when he was a Republican, but now that he has converted to a Democrat he has been under pressure to atone for what many perceive was an inherently racist policy that too often victimized African-Americans. In recent days, Bloomberg has had to apologize for his past support for the policy – as videos of past remarks have surfaced – or has had to claim that his views have evolved, over time, against the policy.

The Nevada caucuses is the first contest in which Bloomberg’s name will be on the primary ballot.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter.