California Gov. Gavin Newsom took it personally when 2020 Democrats started to bash “wine caves” during the debate on Thursday night.
The PBS/Politico Democratic primary debate featured several references to a fundraiser held by Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, at a wine cave in California. This fundraiser, although not uncommon among politicians, was controversial because it was closed to the press and hosted many wealthy donors.
Warren attacked Buttigieg for the fundraiser, saying, “Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”
Buttigieg swung back at Warren and noted that he, unlike her, is not a millionaire. This remark spiraled into a feud between Warren and Buttigieg that lasted through the debate and led several other candidates, including Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang, to mock wine caves.
After the debate, Newsom, who invested in the wine industry and owns a wine cave, expressed his frustration with the candidates attacking wine caves.
“It’s my business. It’s how I started,” Newsom told HuffPost. “It’s a point of pride. It’s one of America’s great exports. I don’t know that it’s helpful to have those kinds of debates.”
He added, “There are literally hundreds of Democrats that have been in that same cave. Some of the most enlightened progressive voices in American politics today.”
To Newsom’s point, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a fundraiser in the same wine cave that Buttigieg hosted his guests.
Newsom, 52, became the governor of California in January after previously working as the state’s lieutenant governor and the mayor of San Francisco.
