Very likely aware that Pete Buttigieg is positioning himself as the centrist alternative to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the Democratic presidential nomination, both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., fiercely attacked the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor in the days before the New Hampshire primary.
Warren, who shares the same decidedly left-of-center constituency as Sanders, slammed Buttigieg for his support from 40 billionaires and/or their spouses during the final televised Democratic debate on Friday.
"I don't sell access to my time," she said. "I don't do call time with millionaires and billionaires."
Warren went on to charge that Buttigieg's wealthy supporters in California's Napa Valley held a fundraising event for him in a "wine cave full of crystals" and were served "$900 per bottle wine."
Soon, social media was spreading the name "Wine Cave Pete."
Sanders' team also went after the Hoosier contender, with his supporters driving home the point that "Buttigieg has big donors" to whom, they charge, he will be beholden if elected president.
"Pete Buttigieg makes big promises and vague promises and he has big donors," Joe Creevow of Somerville, Massachusetts, who came to New Hampshire to train canvassers, told Newsmax. "Bernie fights for everyone.
"I voted for Hillary Clinton [for the Democratic Party nomination over Sanders] in 2016. But after she lost, I stopped having faith in centrism."
Among the billionaires in Buttigieg's corner are movie producer David Geffen, Jo Carole Lauder (wife of Estee Lauder heir and Republican Ronald Lauder), former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Daryl Roth, the wife Steve Roth, a former business partner to President Donald Trump.
A study by Forbes Magazine found that "Buttigieg got donations from 13 big-money donors who gave exclusively to him — by far the most of any Democrat running for president."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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