Published on Friday, February 07, 2020
by Common Dreams
Which Side Are You On?': Sanders Calls Out Buttigieg for Raking in Billionaire Donations
"Do you think if you're collecting money from dozens of dozens of billionaires you're going to stand up to the drug companies and you're going to throw their CEOs in jail if they're acting criminally?"
byJake Johnson, staff writer
With just four days to go before the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday sought to contrast his small dollar-fueled campaign with Pete Buttigieg's reliance on big money by highlighting the former South Bend, Indiana mayor's dozens of billionaire campaign contributors.
"We are in a moment
where billionaires control
not only our economy
but our political process."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders
At a breakfast event at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire hours ahead of the sixth Democratic presidential debate Friday night, Sanders—who has rejected all billionaire campaign cash—rattled off the headlines of several recent news stories on Buttigieg's billionaire donors.
"I'm reading some headlines from newspapers about Pete Buttigieg: 'Pete Buttigieg Has Most Exclusive Billionaire Donors of Any Democrat.' That was from Forbes," Sanders said. "The Hill: 'Pete Buttigieg Tops Billionaire Donor List.' Fortune: 'Pete Buttigieg Takes Lead as Big Business Candidate in 2020 Field'."
"I like Pete Buttigieg, nice guy, but we are in a moment where billionaires control not only our economy but our political process," said the Vermont senator. "Do you think if you're collecting money from dozens of dozens of billionaires you're going to stand up to the drug companies and you're going to throw their CEOs in jail if they're acting criminally?"
According to the December Forbes analysis Sanders cited, Buttigieg had received donations from forty billionaires and their spouses as of September 30th of last year.
Thirteen of those billionaires gave exclusively to Buttigieg, "by far the most of any Democrat running for president," Forbes found.
Sanders' presidential campaign, by contrast, has relied mostly on small donations averaging around $18. As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Sanders raised $25 million in January alone from over 1.3 million donations averaging $18.72.
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