Elizabeth Warren, after swearing off top-dollar fundraisers, to hold one for Biden
by Paul SteinhauserSen. Elizabeth Warren – who during her White House bid repeatedly forswore top-dollar fundraisers with wealthy donors – will host such a gathering for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden next month.
The move comes as the progressive senator from Massachusetts is considered one of the contenders to be the former vice president’s running mate.
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The virtual fundraising event, which is scheduled to be held June 15 and was first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed by Fox News.
The senator held high-dollar fundraisers during her 2018 Senate reelection campaign. However, along with fellow populist and 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, she eschewed them early in 2019 soon after launching her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
After Biden brought in $6.3 million on the day he announced his candidacy in April of last year -- with part of the haul coming from a fundraiser at the home of a Comcast executive -- Warren slammed him for attending a “swanky private fundraiser.”
Biden wasn’t the only Democratic presidential nomination rival Warren jabbed for attending such top-dollar events. "Wine cave" became part of the campaign vernacular last December after the senator, during a primetime primary debate, targeted then-South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg for holding a fundraiser in a ritzy wine cave at a Napa Valley vineyard.
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Warren also vowed to not accept support from outside super PACs when she launched her White House bid. But in the final weeks of her nomination run, she didn’t disavow a super PAC set up to help her campaign.
The senator told reporters while campaigning ahead of the Nevada caucuses in February that “if all the candidates want to get rid of super PACs, count me in, I’ll lead the charge. But that’s how it has to be. It can’t be the case that a bunch of people keep them and one or two don’t.”
Earlier in the campaign cycle, Warren repeatedly tried but failed to have her Democratic nomination rivals join her in repudiating such outside spending groups.
Warren isn’t the only potential running mate contender to help bring in campaign cash for Biden. Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are scheduled to headline fundraising events for the former vice president next month.
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Word of the Warren fundraiser for Biden came just days after comments the senator made on health care sparked speculation that she may be pivoting when it comes to her support for a government-run "Medicare-for-all" single-payer system, which was another central tenet of her White House bid.
“I think right now people want to see improvements in our health care system. And that means strengthening the Affordable Care Act. We should be doing that anyway. That should be easy. We should be doing it right now,” she said.
Warren and Biden repeatedly traded fire over health care policy during the primary campaign. She and Sanders championed "Medicare-for-all." The more moderate Biden pushed for a public option based on traditional Medicare to strengthen the Affordable Care Act -- better known as ObamaCare -- that was passed and implemented during his eight years as vice president under then-President Barack Obama.