Michael Bloomberg

Democratic Voters at Watch Parties Unimpressed by Bloomberg's First Debate

"He's toast," one viewer said of the former mayor of New York City

NBCUniversal, Inc.

One after another, Democratic presidential candidates took turns at the start of their latest debate to take shots at former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. And each time, the crowd at The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, California, reacted with uproarious cheers, NBC News reports.

They cheered when Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., criticized Bloomberg for having spent his way onto the debate stage, and when Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the party should nominate "someone who is actually a Democrat" — referring to Bloomberg — the crowd laughed and clapped again.

The applause at the West Hollywood watch party, hosted by the local chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, reached a peak when Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Bloomberg whether he would release former female employees from nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, legal contracts that prevent someone from talking publicly about an incident, usually signed in exchange for money.

"He's toast," said Dwight Clarke, 70, who lives in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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