Buttigieg Raises over $1 Million from ‘Tens of Thousands of Donors’ after Debate

South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign pulled in more than $1 million from thousands of donations in the immediate aftermath of the fourth Democratic debate, senior campaign adviser Lis Smith announced Wednesday.

Multiple news outlets listed Buttigieg as a winner of Tuesday’s debate.

“The purpose of the presidency is not the glorification of the president. It is the unification of the American people,” Buttigieg said in his closing statement. “I’m asking for your vote to be that president, when the dust clears over the rubble of our norms and institutions at the end of the Trump presidency, pick up the pieces, and guide us toward a better future.”

Buttigieg sparred with multiple candidates on the stage, engaging Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), the race’s front-runner, on her Medicare-for-All plan, and former representative Beto O’Rourke on his proposal to confiscate assault-style weapons.

“Look, this is why people here in the Midwest are so frustrated with Washington in general, and Capitol Hill. No plan has been laid out to explain how a multi-trillion-dollar hole in this Medicare for All plan that Senator Warren is putting forward [will be filled],” Buttigieg told the audience after Warren refused to confirm that middle-class taxes would rise to pay for Medicare for All.

Separately, he challenged O’Rourke’s drastic gun-safety plan in vigorous terms. “The problem isn’t the polls, the problem is the policy,” he said. “I don’t need lessons from you on courage, political or personal.”

Buttigieg also sparred with Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii), the race’s most isolationist candidate, over President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria. When Gabbard blasted “the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war,” he shot back that “the slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of [the] American [troop] presence. It’s a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values.”

More from National Review

• Beto O’Rourke: Buttigieg Opposes Gun Confiscation Because He’s ‘Afraid to Do the Right Thing’

• Warren’s Poll Numbers Surge with Rising Support Among Black Voters

• Klobuchar, Buttigieg Criticize Warren’s Refusal to Admit She Would Raise Middle-Class Taxes