Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren sparred over wealthy donor fundraisers at the sixth Democratic debate in Los Angeles.
Buttigieg, 37, defended his lack of transparency on fundraising, claiming that Warren’s wealth was “100 times mine.”
“According to Forbes magazine, I’m literally the only person on this stage who’s not a millionaire or a billionaire,” Buttigieg continued. “This is the problem with issuing purity tests you yourself cannot pass.”
Warren, 70, had earlier attacked Buttigieg for holding fundraisers in “a wine cave full of crystals” and suggested he was trying to buy the election in “smoke-filled rooms.”
“The mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave, full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine,” said Warren. “He had promised that every fundraiser he would do would be open-door, but this one was closed-door. 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 pick the next president of the United States.”
“I do not sell access to my time,” the Massachusetts senator responded.
