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Sanders Targets Buttigieg Over His Ties to Billionaires

Sanders Targets Buttigieg Over His Ties to Billionaires

(Bloomberg) -- In a likely preview of Friday’s debate, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders hit Pete Buttigieg over breakfast about his ties to billionaires.

During a Politics and Eggs Breakfast at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the Vermont senator read off a list of headlines about “billionaire backers” of Buttigieg, who is rapidly closing in on Sanders in state polls.

“I like Pete Buttigieg. Nice guy,” he said. “But we are in a moment where the billionaires control not only our economy but our political ideas.”

The event was the final in a series hosted by the college before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. The breakfast is a traditional rite for politicians looking to garner favor in the state.

Sanders referenced the debate, saying that moderators will ask questions “about this issue and that issue,” but he said the most important question is “which side are you on?”

“Are you on the side of the working class of this country which has been battered for the last 45 years?” he said. “Are you willing to take on the greed and the corruption of the billionaire class and the one-percent? Or will you continue to stand with the billionaires?”

Sanders and Buttigieg will join former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Venture for America founder Andrew Yang and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer at the debate Friday night.

--With assistance from Ryan Teague Beckwith.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Manchester, New Hampshire at ekinery@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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