Former Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell slams Elizabeth Warren over campaign 'hypocrisy'
A former Pennsylvania governor has an odd way of showing support for a fellow Democrat.
Ed Rendell on Wednesday had a piece in The Washington Post where he claimed to like Elizabeth Warren “a lot” and vowed to “campaign for you with all my heart” if she got the Democratic presidential nomination.
But Rendell’s affection fades quickly as he labels Warren a hypocrite for portraying her 2020 campaign as a grass-roots operation while using large donations from her Senate bid.
“The senator appears to be trying to have it both ways — get the political upside from eschewing donations from higher-level donors and running a grass-roots campaign, while at the same time using money obtained from those donors in 2018,” Rendell writes.
He also calls Warren out for her attack on what she calls Joe Biden’s “swanky private fund-raiser for wealthy donors.” It was Biden’s kickoff fundraiser back in April and Rendell helped organize it in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Rendell points out that “nearly 20 of us who attended the Biden fundraiser had also given her $2,000 or more in 2018 at closed-door fundraisers in ‘swanky’ locations.”
He can’t help poking Barack Obama, as well. Rendell writes “the news media basically gave Obama a free ride and didn’t point out the blatant hypocrisy of trying to win credit for shunning contributions from Wall Street firms while taking tons of money from people who work for those same Wall Street firms.”
Rendell wraps up by inviting Warren back to town.
“And, by the way, Philadelphia has a lot more swanky restaurants that you haven’t seen yet.”
Steven Adams is a Tribune-Review manager/photography. You can contact Steven at sadams@triblive.com.
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