CLAIM: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said candidates who are trying to buy the election, whether through their status as a billionaire or their willingness to “suck up” to billionaires, should not be able to do so.
VERDICT: Warren has received support from dozens of billionaires and has happily courted big donors over the course of her political career, even holding a winery fundraiser with perks for big donors as recently as 2018.
In a question about billionaire Michael Bloomberg (D), Warren said, “I don’t think anyone ought to be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States”:
“I don’t think any billionaire ought to be able to do it ,and I don’t think people who suck up to billionaires in order to fund their campaigns ought to do it,” she continued, railing against everyone on stage — minus Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) — for their status as a billionaire or their willingness to receive help from PACs “that can do unlimited spending.” She went on:
So if you really want to live where you say, then put your money where your mouth is and say no to the PACs. Look, I think the way we build a democracy going forward is not billionaires reaching in their own pockets and people sucking up to billionaires.
The way we build it going forward is we have a grassroots movement funded from the grassroots up. That’s the way I’m running this campaign.
However, Warren has not always lived by that standard. She has accepted support from at least 30 billionaires over the course of her years-long political career, as detailed by the New York Post:
A review of Warren’s campaign donations to her presidential and Senate campaigns reveal that she’s received donations from more than 30 billionaires during her time in politics.
Christopher Sacca, a venture capitalist who appeared on “Shark Tank”, gave $2,800 to Warren in May.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate also netted two $2,500 contributions from GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner’s wife, Theresa, in June. That same month Susan Pritzker, wife of Hyatt heir Nicholas Pritzker II, donated $2,500 to Warren.
The donations run from 2011 to 2019 and include contributions to Warren’s presidential and Senate campaigns. Most of the individual billionaires are giving at or near the maximum contribution limit, which currently is $2,800 for the primary and $2,800 for the general election for a total for $5,600.
Warren, who has busted Pete Buttigieg (D) over ritzy “wine cave” fundraisers in the past, has attended similar events herself, holding a fundraiser at a Boston winery in 2018 that included a souvenir wine bottle for those who donated $1,000. It also provided “VIP experiences” for big donors — those who donated $2,700.
“This was the danger in the @ewarren ‘wine cave’ attack on @PeteButtigieg,” former Obama strategist David Axelrod pointed out in December. “Her own past fundraising practices were pretty much in line with his, including even some of the same high dollar sponsors.”
“She invited stories like this. Unforced error,” he added:
“While Warren touts her presidential campaign as 100 percent grassroots-funded, she transferred over $10 million from her senatorial bid — a time she attended swanky fundraisers and gave facetime to big donors — to cushion her campaign,” as Breitbart News has previously noted.
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