Supporters of the presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders took advantage of a fundraising opportunity with the sudden interest in wine caves.

My talented colleague Fuzzy Slippers covered the heated exchange between Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren over fundraising, which occurred during the Thursday Democratic Party presidential debate.

The exchange included a reference to wine caves, which are swank, temperature-controlled areas that are now popular in high end restaurants.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, an owner of several wineries, came to Buttigieg’s defense.

.@GavinNewsom quite comfortable chatting with the press for a long time in the spin room, defends Buttigieg #winecave fundraiser and says the Pete bashing over it and purity tests aren’t really helping the party #DemDebate + in California you gotta support the wine industry pic.twitter.com/Y1Ce9N4jxr — Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) December 20, 2019

It’s my business, it’s how I started,” he told HuffPost after the debate. “It’s a point of pride. It’s one of America’s great exports. I don’t know that it’s helpful to have those kinds of debates.” Newsom also bemoaned the “purity tests” imposed by progressives that Buttigieg referenced. “That cave’s been used by Democrats all across the country for fundraising … Probably a hundred congressional representatives have benefited from the use of that,” he later told reporters. “I don’t know that this is healthy. Democrats are good at begrudging people … I don’t know why someone that’s had success should apologize for it, or be embarrassed by it, or now no longer be allowed to participate in the democratic process.”

And while the exchange did not include Sen. Bernie Sanders, supporters of the presidential hopeful sensed there might be a fundraising opportunity with the sudden interest in wine caves.

A website called peteswinecave.com surfaced shortly after the debate but it leads to to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue and options for donating to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

To be honest, all the profits I get from blogging have allowed me to install my own wine cave.

In summary, the discussion was nothing more than elites arguing about how elite their elite activities are. I hope all the Democrats are filling the wine caves to the ceiling. They will need much liquid comfort next November.



