Candidates blast DNC for cowing to billionaires after promoting a video that leaves them out

Chris White, DCNF

Sen. Michael Bennet lit into the Democratic National Committee Christmas Eve for supposedly engaging in “pay-to-play politics” after the party posted a video excluding him and other third-tier candidates.

The Democratic Colorado senator criticized the DNC for posting a video that included only candidates “who ponied up six figures.” The video includes former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, both of whom are running for president as a Democrat in 2020.

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— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) December 23, 2019

Bennet and Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard were not included in the DNC’s video, which is part of a fundraising push for the DNC’s Democratic Unity Fund.

“Hard to ‘come together’ when you’re only including candidates in the video who ponied up six figures,” Bennet said on Twitter Tuesday.

Hard to “come together” when you’re only including candidates in the video who ponied up six figures.

Neutrality and unity shouldn’t come at a price — but for the DNC it does. And that amount is $175,000. https://t.co/zh2vPpnyd8

— Michael Bennet (@MichaelBennet) December 24, 2019

He added: “Neutrality and unity shouldn’t come at a price — but for the DNC it does. And that amount is $175,000.” Bennet suggested the “DNC is making clear that pay-to-play politics is the name of the game. If we want to get money out of politics, it has to start with us.”

Other candidates similarly took issue with the DNC’s content. Businessman Andrew Yang, for instance, lambasted the party on Twitter Tuesday for excluding Gabbard before deleting his tweet and noting in an additional post that she did not make the donor threshold.

Gabbard, for her part, saw an 11-point drop in net favorability rating among Democratic primary voters after she voted “present” on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, according to a Dec. 23 Morning Consult poll. Gabbard registered her vote on Dec. 18.

The House voted on two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House voted 230-197 on the first article and 229-198 on the second article. No Republicans voted to impeach Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was under constant pressure since the president’s inauguration to introduce such articles but resisted.

More than 228 Democrats voiced support for impeachment or an impeachment inquiry even as Pelosi initially pushed back against such attempts. The California Democrat has said she believes Trump is “goading” Democrats to impeach him because he thinks it will help him fire up his base.

The DNC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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