Pete Buttigieg goes head-to-head with Elizabeth Warren over high-dollar donors
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren clashed Thursday over high-dollar donors and private fundraisers, as the issue of money in politics took center stage in the sixth Democratic presidential debate.
The sparring began when Warren took a veiled shot at Buttigieg for continuing to hold closed-door fundraisers and accepting contributions from wealthy donors.
"We can't have people who can put down $5,000 for a check drown out the voices of everyone else," Warren said. "They don't in my campaign, and they won't in my White House."
Buttigieg, however, said that in order to defeat President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Democrats must accept help from all corners and stressed he would not turn away support from anyone who wants to help beat President Trump.
"We're in the fight of our lives right now," he said. "Donald Trump and his allies have made it abundantly clear they'll stop at nothing, not even foreign interference, to hold onto power."
But Warren knocked Buttitieg for holding a private fundraiser at a winery in Napa Valley, for which tickets started at $500. Donors willing to spend $1,000 received a photo with the South Bend mayor.
Buttitieg was criticized for the fundraiser, including by Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign, which fundraised off the event and characterized the venue as a "wine cave."
Seizing on the criticism, Warren said that the decision was made "many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States."
"Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States," she said.
But Buttigieg fired back, saying that he is the only Democrat candidate on the debate stage Thursday who is neither a millionaire nor a billionaire.
"This is the problem with issuing purity tests you yourself could not pass," Buttigieg told Warren, noting her net worth is "100 times" his.
Buttigieg questioned whether it would "pollute" his campaign if Warren, herself a millionaire, decided to donate to his campaign.
"We need support from everybody who is committed to helping us defeat Donald Trump," he said.
Warren has pledged to give up events with high-dollar donors and has limited the funding of her campaign to small-dollar donors.