Bernie Sanders denies telling Elizabeth Warren a woman can’t be US president

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren clash on stage during extraordinary scenes in the Democrat debate | WATCH

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, right, in Iowa. Picture: AFP

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have clashed on stage over claims he once told her that a woman could not be US president.

The issue flared in the final debate between the six leading Democratic contenders ahead of the first party caucus in Iowa on February 3 after Senator Warren dismissed Senator Sanders’s ­denial he made the claim to her in a private meeting.

“I didn’t say it,” Senator Sanders said in Des Moines, Iowa. “Anybody knows me knows that it’s incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States.”

Senator Warren used the moment to talk about how women had outperformed men electorally since the election of Republican President Donald Trump.

“So, can a woman beat Donald Trump? Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every ­single election that they’ve been in are the women,” Senator Warren said, referring also to the only other woman on stage, Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Asked whether a woman could win, Senator Klobuchar said: “I point out that you don’t have to be the tallest person in the world — James Madison was five feet, four inches. You don’t have to be the skinniest person in the room. You don’t have to be the loudest person. You have to be competent.”

Welp, Bernie and Warren ended up not shaking hands going off stage #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/DWx5wiaLnW

— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) January 15, 2020

A significant part of the debate between the top six candidates — former US vice-president Joe Biden, Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, Senator Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer — focused on foreign policy.

The candidates were split over whether they would withdraw US troops from the Middle East, with senators Sanders and Warren saying they would withdraw them all.

Mr Biden and Senator Klobuchar said they would keep some troops in the region.

Mr Biden was challenged by Senator Sanders over his decision to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq, prompting the former vice-president to admit once again this was a mistake, but he challenged any of the candidates to match his record on foreign policy.

“I think my record overall, on every other thing we’ve done, has been ... compares to anybody on this stage,” Mr Biden said.

He used the focus on foreign policy to say he was involved in key decisions such as building the coalition against Islamic State and reducing troops numbers in Iraq.

Mr Biden attacked Mr Trump’s policy towards Iran, saying he would try to get Tehran to recommit to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Our allies in Europe are making a comparison between the US and Iran, saying both ought to stand down, making a moral equivalence,” he said.

“We have lost our standing in the region. We have lost the support of our allies. The next president has to be able to pull those folks back together, re-establish our alliances.”

No candidate had a standout performance or a terrible one, and it seems unlikely the debate will greatly change the race.

Polls show Iowa is a close contest between Mr Biden, Senator Sanders, Mr Buttigieg and Sen­ator Warren.

Seven out of the past nine winners in Iowa won the Democrat presidential nomination.

At a national level, Mr Biden remains a clear front-runner with 27.2 per cent support among registered Democrats followed by Senator Sanders on 19.2 per cent, Senator Warren on 16.6 per cent, Mr Buttigieg on 7.2 per cent and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on 6.2 per cent.