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Pete Buttigieg, whose path to the Democratic presidential nomination has narrowed after early promise, offered an explicit condemnation of Bernie Sanders’ politics Saturday after finishing behind the Vermont senator for at least the second time in three contests. In a speech to supporters in Las Vegas, Buttigieg branded Sanders, a democratic socialist, as the leader of an “inflexible ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats.” “I believe that we can bring an end to corporate recklessness and bring balance to our economy by empowering workers, raising wages, and insisting that those who gain the most must contribute the most in order to keep the American dream going forward,” Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, added a moment later. “But that is different from Sen. Sanders’ vision of capitalism as the root of all evil, that would go beyond reform and reorder the economy in ways most Democrats — not to mention most Americans — don’t support.” Buttigieg has been honing such critiques of Sanders for weeks, but until his Saturday speech had not attacked him in such a direct and pungent way. His decision to do so now reflects a new urgency for a campaign that once was the fundraising darling of the field but now has set a deadline to raise $13 million to stay competitive into March.

By winning New Hampshire and now Nevada, and by running close with Buttigieg in the delegate count in Iowa, where results remain subject to recount, Sanders has separated himself from the rest of the Democratic field. The race now shifts to South Carolina, hardly an ideal place for a Buttigieg comeback given its large black electorate and Buttigieg’s struggles to win support from black voters. Buttigieg's speech on Saturday at times delivered conflicting notes. He ripped into Sanders in one breath while lamenting the “viciousness” of politics in the next. He sounded on one hand to be criticizing Sanders’ supporters for their online vitriol and extremism — lines sure to be interpreted by those supporters as antagonistic and unwelcoming — while on the other emphasizing the need for a broader movement that welcomes all points of view. “Now, ours is the only campaign that has beaten Sen. Sanders anywhere in the country during this campaign cycle,” said Buttigieg, falling back on the still-unofficial Iowa results that also showed Sanders winning the popular vote there. “We’ve done it not by consolidating one extreme faction, but by growing an American majority that is united not only over who it is we’re against, but in what it is that we’re for. Ours is a coalition hungry for action. If we mobilize fellow Americans as allies, instead of pushing them into adversaries, we have shown that we can turn the page on our broken politics without turning off most Americans from our politics.” Sanders’ orbit immediately ridiculed Buttigieg’s remarks. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently endorsed Sanders after his own failed presidential bid and campaigned on Sanders’ behalf in Nevada, called his former rival “smug.”

And hey @PeteButtigieg, try to not be so smug when you just got your ass kicked. You know how we form a winning coalition to beat Trump? With a true multi-racial coalition of working Americans: something @BernieSanders has proven he can do + you haven’t. Dude, show some humility