MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Friday separated himself from 2020 rival Pete Buttigieg by pointing out the number of high-flyers pouring money into Mr. Buttigieg’s campaign.
“Our campaign, and I am enormously proud of this, unlike some of the folks up here — I don’t have 40 billionaires, Pete, contributing to my campaign,” Mr. Sanders said at the eighth Democratic presidential debate. “Coming from the pharmaceutical industry, coming from Wall Street and all the big-money interests.”
“If we want to change America, you’re not going to do it by electing candidates who are going out to rich people’s homes begging for money,” he said.
Mr. Buttigieg responded by saying that Democrats are going into the “fight of our lives” against President Trump and that they need all the financial resources they can muster.
“As the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire, I know a thing or two about building a movement because mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is not exactly an establishment fundraising powerhouse,” he said.
Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg ended up in a virtual tie for first in the Iowa caucuses, and have been the two top-polling 2020 Democratic contenders in New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
The exchange followed a question about former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who wasn’t on the debate stage but has carpet-bombed the airwaves by leveraging his vast personal wealth.
Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, all ended up trying to scrounge for cash from viewers and listeners by naming their campaign websites in their answers.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.