Warren, Buttigieg scrap puts Democratic divide on display

WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren has spent weeks absorbing attacks from moderate rivals looking to blunt her surging campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Warren responded by suggesting to reporters in New Hampshire on Friday that Buttigieg was trying to “deflect” the issue, adding, “But he’s going to be in New York next week, and he’s going to do three big fundraisers with rich people.” While testy exchanges are to be expected with voting now looming, this one reflects the deep divides over the Democratic Party’s philosophical direction. “I think there’s no doubt that the center approach is getting another look right now,” said Mitch Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans who was once mentioned as a possible 2020 contender and believes the country wants a “transition” away from President Donald Trump rather than a full political “transformation.” The latter is exactly what Warren has been pitching voters for the better part of the past year, championing a wealth tax, a “Medicare for All” plan giving government- Biden is aggressively pitching a more pragmatic center-left agenda, emphasizing his decades in the Senate. Appearing this week on his own network, Bloomberg TV, Warren said of the ex-mayor: “I don’t think, as a Democratic Party, that we should say that the only way you’re going to get elected, the only way you’re going to be our nominee, is either if you are a billionaire or if you’re sucking up to billionaires.” Warren’s polls began to stall in late October, when she announced plans to spend $20.5 trillion over a decade to implement Medicare for All but then unveiled a more gradual “transition plan.” The senator said that she’d push to get the full proposal through Congress by the end of her third year as president and, in the meantime, use existing, public insurance options to expand health care coverage. “They want someone with big ideas, and they also want to defeat Trump.” Green said Warren getting months of attacks has frightened primary voters and affected her polling — but that it won’t last as candidates including Buttigieg face the added scrutiny that comes with their own rises.