Buttigieg defends big-dollar fundraisers: ‘I am following’ same practices as Obama

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Sunday defended his fundraising practices as the same as those used by former President Obama in the wake of criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a fellow 2020 White House hopeful. 

“I am following the same fundraising practices that President Obama did and that our leaders have,” Buttigieg said on CNN’s “state of the Union,” adding that he’s looking to draw in all available support. 

The former South Bend, Ind. mayor said the funds raised will allow him to win the nomination and build a foundation to take on President Trump in November. 

“I don’t define my campaign by whose support we reject,” Buttigieg said. 

He also noted that his campaign is funded by more than 2 million contributions that he said average under $40, and highlighted a coalition that he said was built from “the ground up.”

“I’m not a billionaire, I haven’t been in politics for years and decades. I don’t have the advantages of having been a senator,” Buttigieg said. 

The former mayor has held big dollar fundraisers, a method of fundraising that has been rejected by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the two most progressive Democrats in the field.