Warren Takes Fight With Pete Buttigieg Down to the Billionaire Wine Cave
The first half of the sixth Democratic presidential debate started sleepily, but a blistering exchange over the role of money in politics between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg laid bare one of the few issues where many of the candidates stand in stark contrast.
Warren and Buttigieg—whose campaigns have been defined, respectively, by Warren’s steadfast refusal to host fundraisers and Buttigieg’s well-tuned fundraising machine—tore into each other over Buttigieg’s willingness to host high-dollar fundraisers with wealthy donors. Warren said it made him susceptible to corruption, and Buttigieg said it was a “purity test” that Warren herself could not pass.
“I made the decision when I decided to run not to do business as usual,” Warren said, detailing the 100,000 selfies she has taken with supporters at rallies. “That’s 100,000 hugs and handshakes and stories, stories of people struggling with student loan debt, stories of people that can’t pay their medical bills, stories from people that can’t find child care.”