Buttigieg’s campaign bought lunch at a Black-owned SC restaurant, then called it a “partnership”

Last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg touted his support of Black entrepreneurship in a South Carolina newspaper, writing that his campaign had “proudly partnered” with a local, Black-owned restaurant named Diane’s Kitchen. That partnership, as it turns out, was the exchange of money for food—$90, to be exact, to feed eight campaign staffers and a surrogate. After ABC News discovered the exaggeration, things got worse. The campaign reached out four times to Diane Cole, the restaurant’s owner, to formally align with the op-ed, which she rejected: “I’m only going to accept that you all stopped in while you were campaigning in South Carolina and I welcomed you all,” she wrote, before finally agreeing to release a tepid thank-you note.