Pete Buttigieg Napa Valley Wine Cave Fundraiser Draws Taunts from Socialists

Mayor Pete Buttigieg attended a fundraiser hosted in a wine cave in Napa Valley on Sunday evening, drawing taunts from socialist Democrats.

Photos from the event hosted at the Hall Rutherford winery emerged on social media as the South Bend mayor addressed donors in the elaborate wine cave underneath a chandelier containing 1,500 Swarovski crystals.

Here are some photos of the Buttigieg fundraiser in Napa — with the famous wine cave and the chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals — that @BrianSlodysko wrote about.https://t.co/0sprQ3aDsy pic.twitter.com/3waO6jO93L

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) December 16, 2019

“Not $18 dollar donors?” Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir mockingly asked on Twitter.

Not $18 dollar donors? https://t.co/C87CDHjHmz

— Faiz (@fshakir) December 16, 2019

The Sanders campaign sent a fundraising email, asking supporters to help the Democrat socialist fight back against the Silicon Valley and California billionaires funding Buttigieg’s campaign.

“Can you help Bernie match Pete’s wine cave fundraiser?” the email asked. “We do need your help to fight back against the wine cave money flooding into this race to stop us.”

.@BernieSanders is now fundraising off of the @PeteButtigieg “wine cave” fundraiser. pic.twitter.com/fTxLmynUeQ

— Adam Kelsey (@adamkelsey) December 17, 2019

The Sanders campaign also bought the url peteswinecave.com to redirect to a Sanders campaign donation page.

Buttigieg is attending four separate fundraisers from the California elite this week in the San Francisco area.

On Monday, he attended an event in Palo Alto co-hosted by Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings. Recode reports that Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Wendy Schmidt, the wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; and Michelle Sandberg, the sister of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also attended the fundraiser for Buttigieg.

Other fundraisers included one with art gallery owner Jeffrey Fraenkel and Sabrina Buell,

Buttigieg defended his fundraisers as “traditional” in a Washington Post event prior to his fundraising swing through California.

“If doing traditional fundraisers disqualifies you from running for president, I guess neither of us would be here,” he said.

Last week, protesters gathered at a New York fundraiser for the South Bend mayor to shout down Buttigieg as “Wall Street Pete.”