Seven Democrat presidential candidates were back on the debate stage last night, including South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Topics ranged from foreign policy and immigration to income inequality and President Trump’s impeachment. Buttigieg said the President left the House with no choice but to impeach.
“No matter what happens in the Senate it is up to us in 2020,” Buttigieg said. “This is our chance to refuse to be taken in by the helpless. To refuse and reject the cynicism.”
He called out the other six candidates on stage for issuing what he called “purity tests” when it comes to taking campaign donations from billionaires, specifically Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“According to Forbes Magazine, I’m literally the only person on this stage who is not either a millionaire or billionaire,” said Buttigieg. “This is the problem with issuing a purity test that you yourself cannot pass.”
He added Warren’s criticism is hypocritical since she herself transferred roughly $10 million leftovers from her 2018 Senate campaign to help fund her 2020 run for president.
“Senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by the money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big-ticket fund-raisers you now denounce,” he continued. “Did it corrupt you, Senator? Of course not.”
Finally, he said he agrees with Warren that richer Americans should pay more in taxes, but clarifies that if that revenue is used for education it should be used for people who otherwise could not afford to go to college and that the “top ten percent” should have to pay their own way.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his desire to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, and forgive student loan debt by taxing billionaires.