South Bend, Indiana Mayor Peter Buttigieg hit back at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) after she criticized him for hosting a fundraiser in a "wine cave" that was attended by wealthy donors by pointing out she is a millionaire.
"We made the decision 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," Warren said at the sixth Democratic debate on Thursday.
Here are some photos of the Buttigieg fundraiser in Napa -- with the famous wine cave and the chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals -- that @BrianSlodysko wrote about.https://t.co/0sprQ3aDsy pic.twitter.com/3waO6jO93L
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) December 16, 2019
"You know, according to Forbes magazine, I’m literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire," Buttigieg replied.
"So this is important. This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass. If I pledge — if I pledge never to be in the company of a progressive Democratic donor, I couldn’t be up here. Senator, your net worth is 100 times mine," he continued. "Now supposing you went home and felt the holiday spirit — I know this isn’t likely, but stay with me — and decided to go onto peteforamerica.com and gave the maximum allowable by law, $2,800, would that pollute my campaign because it came from a wealthy person? No. I would be glad to have that support."
Forbes reports the Warren family net worth is around $12 million, with much of their wealth being in retirement accounts.
