A staid Democratic presidential debate sparked into life Thursday as 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg became involved in two no-holds-barred confrontations with the only women on the stage, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren went at each other's throats over fundraisers.

Both two contenders who have seen their poll numbers rise both nationally and in Iowa, a state whose caucuses they are counting to boost their candidacies to the nomination.

Standing next to each other on stage but barely looking at one another, Warren accused Buttigieg to selling his campaign to billionaire fundraisers while the South Bend mayor coldly advised her not to talk about 'purity tests' she couldn't personally pass.

'The mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. Think about who comes to that. He had promised that every fundraiser he would do would be open door, but this one was closed door. We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States,' Warren said.

The Massachusetts senator has eschewed big dollar fundraisers to focus on small dollar donations, a strategy that has paid off in record amounts of money raised.

'Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,' she said to great applause.

A staid Democratic presidential debate sparked into life Thursday as 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg became involved in two no-holds-barred confrontations with the only women on the stage, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren

Standing next to each other on stage but barely looking at one another, Warren accused Buttigieg to selling his campaign to billionaire fundraisers while the South Bend mayor coldly advised her not to talk about 'purity tests' she couldn't personally pass

Then Klobuchar weighed in, saying she's never been to a wine cave. 'I did not come here to listen to this argument. I came here to make a case for progress. And I have never even been to a wine cave. I have been to the wind cave in South Dakota, which I suggest you go to.'

A slimmed down Democratic primary field took the stage Thursday night in Los Angeles for the last primary debate of 2019. Just seven candidates are participating (from left to right on screen): Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer

Here are some photos of the Buttigieg fundraiser in Napa -- with the famous wine cave and the chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals -- that @BrianSlodysko wrote about.https://t.co/0sprQ3aDsy pic.twitter.com/3waO6jO93L — Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) December 16, 2019

These pictures show the 'wine cave' at which Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg held a controversial big-dollar fundraiser in California

Buttigieg attacked back - focusing on the net worth of himself versus the other six candidates on stage: Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar.

'You know, according to Forbes magazine, I'm literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire,' he said to cheers.

'This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass,' he added. 'If I pledge never to be in the company of a progressive Democratic donor, I couldn't be up here.'

He turned to Warren: 'Senator your net worth is 100 times mine. Suppose you went home and felt the holiday spirit -- I know this isn't likely, but stay with me -- and decided to go on peteforamerica.com and gave the maximum - $2,008 - would that pollute my campaign because it came from a wealthy person? No. I would be glad to have that support. We need the support to everybody who is invested to help beat Donald Trump.'

Buttigieg has raised $51 million, according to the Open Secrets website, with more than half coming from large contributions. Warren has raised $60 million, with 30 per cent coming from large contributions.

'I do not sell access to my time,' Warren responded to him. 'I don't spend time with millionaires and billionaires. I don't meet behind closed doors with big dollar donors.

'Look, I have taken one that ought to be an easy step for anyone here. I said to anyone, if you want to donate to me, that's fine. But don't come around later expecting to be named ambassadors because that's what goes on in these high dollared fundraisers. I said no and I asked everybody on this stage to join me. This ought to be an easy step.

'And here's the problem. If you can't stand up and take the steps that are relatively easy, can't stand up to the wealthy and well connected when it is relatively easy when you are a candidate, then how can the American people believe you will stand up to the wealthy and well connected when you are president and it is really hard?'

Buttigieg snapped back: 'If you can't say no to a donor, then you have no business running in the first place. Senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big ticket fundraisers you now denounce.'

The mayor was likely referring to money Warren transferred from her Massachusetts Senate campaign to her presidential campaign - a move allowed under Federal Election Commission regulations.

'Did it corrupt you, senator?,' Buttigieg asked. 'Of course not. So to denounce the same kind of fund-raising guidelines that President Obama went by, that Speaker Pelosi goes by, that you yourself went by until not long ago to build the Democratic Party and build a campaign ready for the fight of our lives, these purity tests shrink the stakes of the most important election.'

Then Klobuchar weighed in, saying she's never been to a wine cave.

'I did not come here to listen to this argument. I came here to make a case for progress. And I have never even been to a wine cave. I have been to the wind cave in South Dakota, which I suggest you go to. '

'Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,' Warren said in reference to Buttigieg, eliciting applause

Klobuchar also went at Buttigieg on the electability issue, saying: 'I think winning matters'

Klobuchar then brought up Buttigieg's criticism of the field's decades of experience of at the last debate. The mayor had said: 'Washington experience isn't the only experience that matters. There's more than 100 years of Washington experience on this stage and where are we as a country?'

Klobuchar said Thursday: 'You can dismiss committee hearings I think this experience works. And I have not denigrated your experience as a local official,' Klobuchar told him. 'I just think you should respect our experience.'

That brought a response form Buttigieg, who said he had at first held back from responding to another slam from her, because he had 'bigger fish to fry.'

'I don't think we have bigger fish to fry than picking a president of the United States!' she pounced.

Then Buttigieg hit her for having touted her own devotion to the First Amendment at his expense.

'As if anyone up here has any more or less commit to the Constitution than anybody else here,' he fumed.

Then Klobuchar went at Buttigieg on the electability issue.

'I think winning matters,' she said, touting her own experience winning in a purple state.

That prompted pushback from fellow Midwesterner Buttigieg. 'If you just go by vote totals maybe what goes on in my city seems small to you,' he told her. Then he spoke about assembling a winning coalition 'As a gay dude in Mike Pence's Indiana.'

That brought a stern rejoinder from Klobuchar, who ripped his failed bid for statewide office in the conservative state.

'That would be one thing if you had won in Indiana,' she said. 'You tried and you lost by 20 points,' Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar had taken an earlier shot at Buttigieg when she asked to respond to his blasts at Trump for repeatedly calling journalists 'enemies of the people'.

'I just want to make very clear, Mayor, that the freedom of the press is deep in my heart. My dad was a newspaperman,' she said, bringing up her own questioning of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.

'So this is not just talking points to me,' she said, in a dig at the political wunderkind who is leading in the latest Iowa poll.

'This is the real world. And I think that experience that I will bring to the White House, with protecting the First Amendment, is worth more than any talking points.'

Businessman Andrew Yang cautioned the nation against an impeachment 'obsession' in his opening statement after moderator Judy Woodruff confused him with Tom Steyer

At the beginning of the night, the candidates blasted President Donald Trump as a 'liar' and a 'fraud' who had disgraced his office 24 hours after the House voted to impeach him, while businessman Yang cautioned the nation against an impeachment 'obsession'.

'We have a president who is a pathological liar. We have a president who is running the most corrupt administration in the modern history of this country. And we have a president who is a fraud,' said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders after moderator Judy Woodruff asked each of the seven candidates on stage to respond to the historic vote at a Democratic debate in Los Angeles.

Warren said the clear issue for 2020 is: 'How we are going to run against the most corrupt president in living history.'

But Yang, who trails poll leaders but continues to be a successful fundraiser, warned: 'We have to stop being obsessed over impeachment. He compared it to a ball game 'where you know what the score is going to be.'

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the poll leader who featured prominently in the impeachment saga over Ukraine, accused Trump of 'dumbing down the presidency'.

PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff created an awkward moment at the top of the debate as she started addressing 'Andrew Yang,' but was looking at Tom Steyer.

'I'm over here!' Yang called out, clapping at the moderator to get her attention. 'Judy.'

Steyer and Yang's podiums are on opposite sides of the stage.

'I'm sorry, Mr. Steyer,' Woodruff said, letting the billionaire answer first.

Earlier at an event with rapper Childish Gambino, Yang addressed how he's often spoken for fewer minutes than the other candidates onstage.

'I have done the math, if you have seven candidates instead of ten, that means my speaking time will go up by approximately 50 percent,' he told reporters there, saying he was 'thrilled' to be on the stage, as another eight Democratic candidates who are running have been cut.

Former Vice President Biden, the poll leader who featured prominently in the impeachment saga over Ukraine, accused Trump of 'dumbing down the presidency'

Vermont Sen. Sanders responded to the impeachment prompt by saying: 'We have a president who is a pathological liar. We have a president who is running the most corrupt administration in the modern history of this country. And we have a president who is a fraud'

The group later dug into climate change issues, including whether to move Americans out of their cities to areas less likely to be impacted by severe climate change.

Klobuchar said she would introduced 'sweeping legislation to put a price on carbon and build a fridge to the next century - which means we must upgrade our buildings and our building standards.' She described watching a dramatic 30-second video of a father and daughter during the Paradise, California fire.

Steyer said climate change would be his top priority, and called on Buttigieg to 'prioritize this higher.'

Buttigieg said the issue was personal to him because he lives in a river city, as well as on the river.

'I've made clear that this will be a topic of Day One action,' he said.

Sanders ripped the original climate question, about whether Americans should be relocated form high risk areas.

'The issue now is whether we save the planet for our children and our grandchildren,' Sanders said. He earned applause from the crowd at Loyola Marymount University after a dramatic answer.

Warren said: 'The biggest climate problem we face is the pols in Washington who keep saying the right things.' She blasted politicians who take money from the oil industry and 'bow down' to lawyers and lobbyists.

Yang was direct in his response. He said the U.S. 'obviously' needed to relocated people from certain places, and mentioned a Louisiana town getting inundated by the Gulf of Mexico where that is already happening.

'Do you leave that town on its own to fend for itself?' asked Yang.

Biden brought up his ties to Trump's impeachment and his son, Hunter Biden (pictured), whose Ukrainian business deal made him a GOP target

Biden, himself, brought up his ties to Trump's impeachment and his son, Hunter Biden, whose Ukrainian business deal made him a GOP target.

'If anyone has reason to be angry at the Republicans and not want to cooperate it's me, the way that they attacked me and my son and my family, I have no love,' the former veep said. 'But the fact is we have to be able to get things done.'

Biden had been asked whether his pitch to voters was simply that he'd get things back to normal.

'Look, I didn't say return to normal. Normal's not enough, normal - in fact, we have to move beyond normal, whether it's healthcare, the environment, whatever it is. We have to build on whatever we started in our administration,' he continued. 'And that's been interrupted very badly.'

Biden added that Trump's ouster wouldn't change things fundamentally, but it would have a benefit.

'His base is not going to be able to intimidate those half a dozen Republicans we may need on other things,' Biden said, likely speaking of the Senate's make-up.

The former vice president then called out the more progressive candidates who have been critical of Biden wanting to work across the aisle.

'I refuse to accept the notion, as some of this stage do, that we can never, never get to the place where we can have cooperation again,' he said.

'If that's the case, we are dead as a country,' he argued.

PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff created an awkward moment at the top of the debate as she addressed 'Andrew Yang,' but was looking at Tom Steyer (right)

While the last debate was overshadowed by some of the most riveting impeachment hearing testimony - that of E.U. Amb. Gordon Sondland - candidates on Thursday had to escape impeachment's hangover, as the House of Representatives history-making vote happened one night before.

A CNN poll, which came out Thursday morning, shows that the top-tier remains a three-way race between Biden, who's still in the lead, and Warren and Sanders, who will both be impeachment jurors - a role that could take them away from the campaign trail for a month.

Biden leads the field with 26 percent support. Sanders follows with 20 percent, while Warren has 16 percent.

Michael Bloomberg, who is now at 5 percent in the polls thanks to a multi million-dollar self-funded spending spree, was not present at Thursday's debate

Biden has consistently held a lead in national polling, although it is down 7 points from a year ago, when it stood at 33 percent.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is at 8 percent, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now at 5 percent, fueled by a multi million-dollar self-funded spending spree.

All of those candidates but Bloomberg will be on the debate stage, joined by Klobuchar, Steyer and Yang.

The Democratic National Committee keeps setting higher thresholds for candidates to meet to make the debate stage.

Between October and December those rules squeezed two candidates of color off the stage, former HUD Director Julian Castro and Sen. Cory Booker, while Sen. Kamala Harris, dropped out.

That makes Yang the only candidate of color onstage.

Buttigieg, the first openly gay Democrat to seek the nomination, is expected to clash with Warren over his past work for corporate clients.

He leads in a new Iowa State University survey in the first caucus state.

He is at 24 percent, trailed by Sanders at 20 percent and Biden at 15 percent and Warren at 18 percent.

Sanders is up from the same CNN poll a year ago, when he was at 15 percent.

The field is not close to being set.

A bare 51 percent majority said they were not yet settled on their selection. Half of Democrats surveyed said they were extremely enthusiastic about voting in 2020.

The poll was released a day after the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump, making him just the third president in U.S. history to face a Senate impeachment trial.

The number of Democrats who are very satisfied stands at 31 percent, compared to 38 percent in June.

Biden refuses to commit to running for a second term when he is 82

Biden wouldn't commit on the Democratic debate stage in Los Angeles to run for a second term if elected president next year.

'No I'm not willing to commit one way or another,' Biden said when asked the question directly by Politico's Tim Alberta.

'Here's the deal, I'm not even elected one term yet, let's see where we are, let's see what happens.'

He then added, 'It's a nice thought.'

Alberta had asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, and Biden, 77, to respond to recent comments by former President Barack Obama, where he suggested women would be better world leaders, adding, 'If you look at the world and you look at the problems, it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way.'

When Alberta posed the query to Biden he added, 'I'm going to guess that President Obama did not clear that remark through your campaign ahead of time.'

Biden served as Obama's vice president, though Obama has not endorsed in the Democratic race.

'And I'm going to guess he's was not talking about me either,' Biden answered, grinning.

Biden then explained that he was running because of his decades of government service. Biden was elected to the Senate at age 29 before becoming vice president in 2009.

'I'm running, I'm running because I've been around, on my experience,' Biden said. 'With experience comes judgement and hopefully a little wisdom.'

Alberta brought up that Biden would be 82 by the end of his first term - the oldest president in history.

'Winston Churchill,' Biden offered, name-dropping the late British Prime Minister.

When Alberta clarified he meant American history, Biden said it was a joke.

'Politico doesn't have much of a sense of humor,' the ex-veep said.





Biden slams Sarah Sanders after ex-Trump press secretary mocks his on-stage stutter

The former vice president lambasted ex-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for mocking the stutter he used to share an anecdote about a young man asking him for help with the problem they share.

'I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up,' the 2020 presidential contender tweeted minutes after the conclusion of Thursday night's Democratic debate.

Sanders had tweeted, 'I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about,' directly after the ex-veep talked at the debate about a little kid coming up to him and saying 'I I I I I I I can't talk, what do I do?'

Biden went after former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders after she mocked the stutter he had used to talk about a young kid coming up and talking to him about how to overcome their shared problem

Joe Biden went after Sarah Sanders directly after leaving the debate stage, saying 'it's called empathy. Look it up,' he wrote, sharing her tweet

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders jumped in hot water for a tweet she wrote Thursday night mocking a stutter

Upon hearing Biden's remark on the debate stage, Sarah Sanders took to Twitter to mock him - a move that got her called out by the former vice president, a top Biden aide and a number of Twitter users

Biden was talking about Americans who had touched him, including people on the trail who have experienced grief. Biden has lost a wife, baby daughter and adult son, to a car accident and then brain cancer.

He's also talked openly about struggling with a stutter.

'I have scores of these young women and men who I keep in contact with,' he said onstage of fellow stutterers who he's encountered in his decades-long political career.

On Twitter, some people thought Biden was mocking the kid.

Biden's senior adviser, Symone Sanders, was quick to react.

'He was a kid who stuttered terribly and was demonstrating what he used to deal with as a child while talking about the way he connects with people about it on the trail. He definitely wasn’t mocking!' she wrote, responding to a tweet that said the vice president was 'so f***ing stupid' and an 'old man.'

Sanders, the Biden surrogate, then went after Sanders, the Trump spokeswoman.

'Is this truly the example you want to set for your children Sarah?' Symone Sanders tweeted. 'It’s sad you missed VP Biden talking about how he connects with people on the trail whether they struggle with a stutter or losing a loved one.'

Shortly thereafter, Biden himself knocked the former press secretary using Twitter.

She defended herself by saying she didn't mean it that way.

'To be clear was not trying to make fun of anyone with a speech impediment. Simply pointing out I can’t follow much of anything Biden is talking about,' the former press secretary said.

As their tweets went viral, Sanders apologized claiming she didn't know Biden had a stutter.

Biden surrogate Symone Sanders was quick to explain why the vice president had used a stutter onstage

Symone Sanders then went after Sarah Sanders for her tweet, asking 'Is this truly the example you want to set for your children Sarah?'

'I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable. I apologize and should have made my point respectfully,' she said.

Twitter reacted with snarky comments.

'Mocking Biden's stutter. #BeBest, ya'll,' wrote user Chuck Tyron.

User @brightertaes wrote, 'I may not fully support Biden but literally being a public official and making fun of his stutter/speech impediment he's grown up with?'

'This is what the Republican party is now? like a bunch of 4th graders making fun of people's disabilities? Biden stutters, so what?' asked @Crunk1977.

And many didn't believe Sanders' claim she didn't know about Biden overcoming a stutter.

'Everyone knows Biden had a stuttering problem for years growing up. Real funny Sarah,' said @RedSheri1, who likened Sanders' comments to President Trump mocking a disabled reporter. 'Shameful,' she commented.