Pete Buttigieg recently took aim at proposals for free college — which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing — prompting responses from many Sanders supporters, including New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , who hit back at the South Bend, Indiana mayor on Twitter.
The clash between Sanders’ and Buttigieg’s campaigns doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. On Monday, Sanders’ speechwriter, David Sirota, contrasted Buttigieg’s history of comments on the Vermont senator and seemed to suggest they don’t add up.
“Reminder: @PeteButtigieg this year criticized @BernieSanders & suggested Bernie is as divisive as Trump,” Sirota tweeted.
“But before that, Pete wrote an award-winning essay saying Bernie’s ‘ability to bring people together stand against the current of opportunism, moral compromise & partisanship.’”
Per The Washington Examiner , Buttigieg previously compared Sanders’ supporters to Donald Trump’s supporters during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. Buttigieg suggested that the “sense of anger and disaffection” from the economic conditions in the United States could turn people against the system and lead them to either Sanders or Trump.
The comment sparked a reaction from Nina Turner, the co-chair of the Sanders campaign, who blasted Buttigieg for his outreach to black voters and pointed to his mayoral history, which reportedly includes a fractured relationship with black Americans in South Bend, per The Washington Examiner .
“I don’t think you are in any position to be the president of the United States of America,” she said.
As Sirota noted in his Monday tweet, Buttigieg spoke highly of Sanders’ “energy, candor, conviction” and “ability to bring people together” in his essay, suggesting such qualities are the source of the “real impact” Sanders has in his battle against the current inequalities in the United States.
Sirota also used his Monday tweet to take a dig at Buttigieg’s recent criticism of free college and suggested a political motivation for the mayor’s attack.
“Lots of folks have been wondering why @PeteButtigieg is suddenly now airing a negative ad criticizing @BernieSanders’ plan for debt-free college,” Sirota tweeted before presenting two headlines — one of Wall Street’s displeasure with Sanders’ plan to pay for his free college proposal with a securities trading tax, and another highlighting Buttigieg’s Wall Street support.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, a recent New Hampshire Emerson College poll showed Sanders in the lead with 26 percent support and Buttigieg in second with 22 percent support. While Sanders gained the most support from liberal voters and those under the age of 50, Buttigieg secured the most support from those in the somewhat liberal to moderate range and voters over the age of 50.
