Pete Buttigieg is finding out that it’s hard to be a frontrunner right now. The candidate, who raised massive money from grassroots support at the beginning of his campaign, is not having a good week, and it’s culminated in supporters abandoning him and asking for refunds of their donations. The man they thought was a progressive who needed small donations turns out to be a moderate who’s getting all the money he needs from Wall Street and billionaires.
After seeing a recent surge in support in the democratic primary, Buttigieg is under renewed scrutiny on many sides for his poor record with black voters, his work for the McKinsey Consulting firm, and for his cozying up to Wall Street and big-money donors. All of that converged yesterday as Buttigieg was caught (by Black activists) fundraising privately with big money donors after he said he wouldn’t – and after his deep ties to big business and corporate interested have come under scrutiny.
First, this week finally saw the release of Buttigieg’s client list from his time working at the McKinsey consulting firm. Progressives have pounced on Buttigieg’s work for the consulting firm – some of which was for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2007 in which McKinsey’s consultations contributed to massive layoffs in the state. His work for the firm on top of his opposition to policies like free college and Medicare For All as proposed by candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren has seriously hurt his credibility with members of the party who are hoping for a candidate that wants to truly change the system.
And then there was his willingness to court billionaires. Warren and Sanders have placed themselves firmly in the camp against billionaires and big money in politics, while Buttigieg very much on the opposite side of that divide. Buttigieg has accepted money from big donors amid much criticism, and dismissed it out of hand, as with his response to the young man in this video:
holy shit
a kid asked pete if he will help take big money out of politics and stop having closed-door fundraisers with billionaires
pete’s response?
a curt “no”pic.twitter.com/IjFeH7VVjD
— jordan (@JordanUhl) December 9, 2019
Following that tweet going viral and more criticism from other candidates, Buttigieg’s campaign promised he would stop having closed-door fundraisers with billionaires and big business and announced that it would open events to the press and provide names of donors.
This apparently was a lie, as Buttigieg was caught by activists exiting another closed-door fundraiser, where he refused to answer for himself.
#WallStreetPete wouldn’t let us in to his billionaire donor fundraiser but we’re pretty sure he heard us #MakeBillionairesPay pic.twitter.com/3B4Oo7UaeJ
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) December 12, 2019
Buttigieg was caught in the act by activists, some who were with New York Communities for Change, an activist group committed to grassroots community organizing and fighting against corporate influence. The protestors we see in these videos are primarily people of color demanding answers from Buttigieg and so of course someone called the cops on them.
Rather than coming out to talk with working class New Yorkers (or letting us in! It’s cold out here!) @PeteButtigieg called the cops on us. Why did #WallStreetPete come to campaign in our city if he’s afraid to talk to us. pic.twitter.com/7pM3tl6GsM
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) December 12, 2019
So, here we have Buttigieg caught in a lie so he could court more billionaires and suppress black community activists to do it? That’s a bad look, and on top of everything that’s what got #WallStreetPete and #RefundPete trending on Twitter on Thursday morning.
Progressives who donated to Buttigieg when he first came on the scene and wrongly assumed that he had real progressive plans for America are taking their money back and looking to send it elsewhere now.
Just got my refund from Pete’s campaign. It was just pocket change so he won’t miss it, but I know @ewarren will appreciate it. #RefundPete
— Mason Wants to Go to Hogwarts 🧳🐍 (@JamesMase1125) December 12, 2019
Been saying it about #WallStreetPete #RefundPete since day 1. NOBODY makes 26M in fundraising in the 2nd quarter. Not even Biden did that and he’s been around for FOREVER.
— Danny 💰💰💰 (@DannyParkIRL) December 12, 2019
I’m thankful that i never personally donated to mayor pete, but he definitely fooled me into thinking that he was a progressive when he first entered this primary. It was easy for him to do this because he was so light on policy when he first entered the race. #RefundPete https://t.co/VtavFqt5py
— zach (@zachsjacobson) December 12, 2019
It is still mind-boggling to me that Buttigieg has become this well-funded media darling. Let’s just say he’s polling at 0% with black voters for a reason.#RefundPete https://t.co/4OWAfAWcfI
— TheAverageBlackMan™ (@TheAvgBlackMan) December 12, 2019
It’s clear that Buttigieg has a lot of work to do to impressive progressive and black voters that aren’t having it with his record or with his campaign. There’s still a long way to go before the votes really start coming in, and Buttigieg will need to get support from more actual people rather than anonymous white billionaires to have a chance.
(via: Newsweek, image: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
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