Buttigieg flips Sanders billionaire attack: ‘I would happily accept the contribution from him’

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, added, “I’m not a fan of the current campaign finance system, but I’m also insistent that we’ve got to go into this with all of the support we can. And, by the way, my campaign is where it is because hundreds of thousands of individuals, no corporate PACS, individuals have contributed.”

Sanders, who appeared on four of the five Sunday morning news shows compared to Buttigieg’s five appearances, pressed his case against his rival for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination for accepting billionaire donations during his spot on CBS.

“When you have the heads of large pharmaceutical companies contributing to your campaign, you are not going to aggressively deal with the fact that in some cases, we pay 10 times more” for drugs than Canada, he said during a pre-taped interview.

The Vermont senator, 78, himself, is a millionaire, thanks to a couple of book deals.

The attack line, debuted ahead of the New Hampshire debate, has been used in a spree of online ads and has been picked up by his ideological ally and primary opponent, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sanders, in between getting grilled on his health, on Sunday criticized the “extraordinary” mishandling of the Iowa caucuses but refused to stoke complaints that the Democratic Party was trying to hinder his chances of becoming the 2020 standard-bearer. He also dismissed concerns that his hypothetically being on the top of the ticket as a socialist would hurt candidates further down the ballot.

“In terms of our agenda, it is the agenda of what working people want,” he told CNN.

Buttigieg and Sanders finished first and second in the chaotic Feb. 3 Iowa contest and, according to a slew of tracking polls, are on the precipice of a similar result in New Hampshire on Feb. 11.