Buttigieg takes his case to Fox News before Iowa
January 26, 2020
DES MOINES, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg appeared Sunday night on Fox News to deliver his final pitch to Iowa caucus voters a week before the vote: that he can unify Democrats, independents and “future former Republicans” in the 2020 campaign and eventually in the White House.
“This network is known for having a lot more conservative viewers, but I don’t think you have to be a Democrat to see what is wrong with this president,” Buttigieg said, when asked during a town hall event about how he would appeal to Republican voters in the general election. “If you’re having trouble looking your kids in the eye and explaining this presidency to them, you have a choice.”
The 38-year-old former South Bend (Ind.) mayor broke out in the 2020 campaign with a viral CNN town hall appearance last March. The Fox event Sunday night was an effort to use Buttigieg’s skill in those moments for a last-minute boost — as well as an opportunity to talk to a cable news audience that does not see Democratic presidential candidates on the air as often.
But Buttigieg faced a string of questions that cut to the core of his electability argument, including his relatively short resume, as the ex-mayor of a 100,000-person city, and his weakness among African American voters.
“If what you’re looking for is the most years spent in Washington, you’ve got a clear choice and it’s not going to be me,” Buttigieg said, in answer to whether he was qualified to be president. “But I would also argue that the kind of experience you have governing on the ground in a city of any size is the kind of experience we need more of in Washington.”
Pete Buttigieg is selling himself as a leader for the next generation of Democrats.
See where he stands on all the issues »
On his low-polling status among black voters, Buttigieg said that “having eight months to introduce yourself is, of course, not the same as having 20 or 30 or 40 years,” acknowledging that his primary rivals, particularly former Vice President Joe Biden, leads among African American voters by a wide margin.
Buttigieg took some veiled shots at his primary rivals, even on the grounds of his lack of experience. “I’ve heard some folks saying, 'This is no time to take a risk.' And I agree, but I think the biggest risk that we could take, right now, would be to try to go up against this president with the same old playbook that we’ve been relying on,” Buttigieg said.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
