Bernie Sanders told supporters on Thursday that his campaign had raised $4 million in the two days since fellow candidate Elizabeth Warren accused him of once telling her that a woman couldn’t win a presidential election.
According to Sanders, out of 200,000 contributions he received in the past two days, 25,000 were from new donors.
Warren on Monday released a statement claiming that during a private conversation in 2018, she and Sanders had discussed the likelihood that a female candidate could beat President Trump in the 2020 election.
“I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” Warren said. Sanders categorized Warren’s description of the conversation as “ludicrous.”
After Tuesday’s debate, Sanders was caught on hot mic accusing Warren of lying.
“You know, let’s not do it right now. If you want to have that discussion, we’ll have that discussion,” Sanders told Warren. “You called me a liar. You told me–all right, let’s not do it now.”
The two Senators are currently fighting for the progressive wing of the Democratic primary vote. Both have released health care policies promising universal medical coverage for all Americans, and would dramatically increase government spending to pay for those programs.
However, Warren’s candidacy, which gained momentum early in the primary race, has slowed dramatically over the past several weeks. Meanwhile, Sanders is leading several polls in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses, and raised $34.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, more than any other Democratic candidate. The average donation to the campaign was $18.53, indicating a large base of small donors.