LOS ANGELES — The twin brother of a 2020 presidential candidate sniped at Pete Buttigieg’s appeal for a focus on poverty after photos emerged of him at a lavish fundraiser in California’s Napa Valley.
“.@PeteButtigieg Did you all talk about the poor in that Silicon Valley wine cave?” Joaquin Castro tweeted.
[Watch: Democrats face off in sixth Democratic debate]
.@PeteButtigieg Did you all talk about the poor in that Silicon Valley wine cave?
— Joaquin Castro (@Castro4Congress) December 20, 2019
Castro, a Texas congressman representing part of San Antonio, is the younger twin brother of Julian Castro, an Obama administration housing secretary and 2020 White House hopeful who failed to qualify for the sixth Democratic primary debate in Los Angeles.
Joaquin Castro, 45, ripped Buttigieg, 37, after the South Bend, Indiana, mayor referenced how the economy was “not working for most of us” during the debate.
“For the middle class, and — I know you’re only ever supposed to say middle class and not poor in politics — but we’ve got to talk about poverty in this country. There is not one county in the United States of America where someone working full time at the minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment. In most places, not even a one-bedroom apartment,” the Harvard College graduate and former Rhodes scholar said.
This month, Buttigieg opened up his private fundraisers to the press after calls for greater transparency from rivals such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The move, however, triggered further scrutiny after photos of him mixing with donors at Hall Wines in Rutherford were shared on social media.
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
Joaquin Castro in August provoked online outrage when he tweeted out the names of 44 San Antonio residents who donated the maximum amount to President Trump’s reelection campaign.
Castro was not the only one to make the “wine cave” jab. Warren took a dig at the event from the debate stage.
“Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,” Warren said.
