Bernie Sanders’ campaign will clarify an incorrect fundraising email they sent Tuesday morning that claimed Hillary Clinton’s campaign was charging “some donors” $27,000 to attend a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Monday night.
“It’s no exaggeration to say this is the most important stretch of our campaign,” reads the email. “Secretary Clinton’s supporters are responding: her campaign is holding at least a dozen high-dollar fundraisers this week, including one last night where some donors paid $27,000 to attend.”
After sending the email Tuesday, Mike Casca, Sanders’ rapid response spokesman, acknowledged the email needed clarification.
“Our supporters are really fired up about Clinton’s high-dollar fundraising, so when we send another fundraising email about it tonight we’ll be sure to clarify that the high-dollar donors ‘bundled’ instead of ‘donated’ $27,000, which is more than the annual salary of a worker making $12 per hour,” Casca said.
Sanders has sought to make Clinton’s fundraising practices, which are far more focused on high-dollar donors than his, an issue in the Democratic nomination fight.
“I know that every candidate who has ever received special interest money always says that the millions and millions of dollars they receive will never influence them. Never, never, never,” Sanders said on Monday in South Carolina. “That is what every candidate who has received special interest money always says.”
Clinton capped off a six-event, two-day fundraising swing through California with a gathering at the Hancock Park home of Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Jon Vein. Goldsmith-Vein is a movie producer and entertainment executive and Vein is the co-founder and CEO of MarketShare.
According to invites, the top ticket price for the fundraiser was $2,700, the legal max for primary donations. Event hosts raised $27,000, meaning they invited enough people to the event to break that threshold.
The event was solely a fundraiser for Hillary for America, Clinton’s campaign, not the Hillary Victory Fund, Clinton’s joint effort with the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties, or Priorities USA, Clinton’s high-dollar super PAC, according to Josh Schwerin, a Clinton spokesman.
No donors paid $27,000, he added.
Initially, the Sanders campaign stood by their fundraising email, with Casca tweeting a shrugging emoji next to bags of money and a picture of the event invite that notes hosts “raise $27,000.”
Michael Briggs, Sanders’ spokesman, also sent a similar invite to CNN, noting the fact that hosts raised $27,000.
“We relied on media reports that said her top donors at the fundraisers ‘donated’ $27,000,” Casca wrote in a later email, linking to two incorrect media reports from CBS and ABC local news stations in Los Angeles.
Clinton personally headlined 174 fundraisers in 2015, according to CNN’s count. Sanders, by comparison, headlined nine. Most of the Vermont senator’s money is raised online, where donors regularly donate small sums. To date, Sanders has received 4 million individual donations averaging $27.
Sanders, however, has headlined a fundraiser in Los Angeles. In October, the Vermont senator attended a reception at the Beverly Hills home of Linda and Syd Leibovitch. According to an invite, $2,700 was the top ticket price but co-hosts were asked to “raise” $10,000 per person, using the same terminology that Clinton had used for similar events.