Warren, Buttigieg, and finger-pointing about fund raising...the candidates need to focus on real issues...
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Chase Williams grinned broadly as he stood for a photo next to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, chatting briefly with the senator from Massachusetts before moving on so someone else could have their turn.
It was the kind of moment that has become a ubiquitous part of Warren’s presidential campaign and its long “selfie lines,” where supporters wait for hours to pose with her at no charge.
But this shot, taken in October 2017, was at an entirely different kind of event: an exclusive “backstage” reception that took place in the vault of a former Cleveland bank. And that was the day’s low-rent affair — donors who agreed to pay more attended an even more exclusive shindig with Warren that day, according to two people familiar with her schedule.
The events were part of a high-dollar fundraising program that Warren had embraced her entire political career, from her first Senate run in 2011 through her reelection last year. Warren was so successful at it that she was able to transfer $10 million of her Senate cash to help launch her presidential bid.
But in the past year Warren has undergone a transformation, moving from one of the Democratic Party’s biggest draws at high-dollar fundraisers to a presidential candidate who has sworn them off as sinister attempts to sell access.
In a debate last week, Warren criticized rival Pete Buttigieg for having an exclusive fundraiser in a crystal-filled wine cave in Napa Valley, prompting the South Bend, Ind., mayor to respond that she shouldn’t issue “purity tests you cannot yourself pass.”
Williams, who supports Buttigieg in the presidential race, said Warren’s position was “disingenuous.”