DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday denied that he told Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in 2018 that a woman couldn’t get elected president.

“As a matter of fact, I didn’t say it,” Mr. Sanders said at the seventh Democratic presidential debate. “Anybody [who] knows me knows that it’s incomprehensible that I would think that a woman could not be president of the United States.”

He said he “deferred” to Ms. Warren in 2015 when there was a “Draft Warren” movement and only jumped into the 2016 presidential race when Ms. Warren decided not to run.

He said he would “do everything in my power” to help anyone on the stage defeat President Trump.

Late Monday, Ms. Warren had said that among the topics that came up during the 2018 meeting with Mr. Sanders “was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate.”

“I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” she said, confirming news that had broken earlier in the day about their conversation that set off an explosion of finger-pointing between the two candidates’ camps.

On Monday, Mr. Sanders had also vehemently denied he said such a thing. He said he told Ms. Warren that he could foresee Mr. Trump weaponizing “whatever he could.”

Ms. Warren responded on the debate stage by saying she “disagreed” with the contention - in line with her previous statement.

“Bernie is my friend, and I’m not here to try to fight with Bernie,” she said, adding it was time to tackle “head-on” the question of whether or not a woman can be president.

“Can a woman beat Donald Trump? Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections,” she said. “The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women.”

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