Joe Biden unloaded on Elizabeth Warren at a closed-door, high-dollar fundraiser, accusing her of being “condescending” and exuding “elitism.”
The former vice president, 76, evoked his former boss, President Barack Obama, and blasted his rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination who are running on a platform of “you agree with me or you have no courage,” saying it is possible to be “extremely progressive but not be socialist.”
“As Barack said, it’s like forming a circular firing squad what [sic] were doing,” Biden told the donors assembled on the 17th floor of Pittsburgh’s Omni William Penn Hotel on Tuesday, according to a pool report. Obama complained earlier this year that “rigidity” had caused some Democrats to create “what’s called a ‘circular firing squad,’ where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues.”
Biden said it was “condescending” to have a “my-way-or-the-highway attitude” on policy, adding some of his competitors represent “elitism” and ideals working-class Democrats don’t share. That was the mistake Democrats made in 2016, according to Delaware’s longtime senator. “We didn’t spend a lot of time talking to our base,” he said.
Biden’s comments, though veiled, were directed at Warren. The pair are both front-runners to become their party’s standard-bearer next year and have been exchanging more pointed barbs over the issue of healthcare as the Democratic race for the White House tightens.
Warren responded last week in Iowa to Biden’s campaign ripping her proposal to fund her version of “Medicare for all” as “mathematical gymnastics.” The Massachusetts senator pushed back, asserting many of the figures were calculated by Obama administration alumni and that anybody who defended insurance company profits was “running in the wrong presidential primary.”
“On one level, it’s kind of funny,” Biden said Tuesday. “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. This person has only fairly recently in the mid-90s become a Democrat.”
Warren irked many of her rivals last week when she lashed out at party members who would prefer to anoint a “safe” nominee to challenge President Trump for the White House.
“Look, anyone who comes on this stage and doesn’t understand that we’re already in a fight is not the person who is going to win that fight. Anyone who comes on this stage and tells you they can make change without a fight is not going to win that fight. Anyone who comes on this stage and tells you to dream small and give up early is not going to lead our party to victory,” the former Harvard Law School professor and financial policy expert said.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the Sunday morning talk shows echoed Biden’s gripe.
“Warren and some of the others (are) saying that you are either for her way, or you are for business as usual. That is just not true,” he told CNN.
Biden’s remarks at the fundraiser reflect a Medium post published online on Tuesday evening.
“These kinds of attacks are a serious problem. They reflect an angry unyielding viewpoint that has crept into our politics. If someone doesn’t agree with you — it’s not just that you disagree — that person must be a coward or corrupt or a small thinker,” he wrote. “This is no way to get anything done. This is no way to bring the country together. This is no way for this party to beat Donald Trump.”
