South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has expanded his racism accusations from law enforcement to medical doctors, but the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s anti-racism crusade has yet to convince black voters to support his campaign.
Talking to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, Buttigieg discussed “deeper issues of systemic racism as a country,” saying medical doctors are less likely to take black patients’ ailments seriously.
“You know, the fact that a black patient is less likely to have their reports of pain taken seriously when they go into an E.R.; the fact that a black job applicant is less likely to have a call back-on a resume — maybe even an identical resume, even just if the name is considered characteristically black, shows you that these issues have created two countries,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg, 37, who also accused President Trump of condoning “white nationalism,” has 0% black Democrat voter support in the primary in a recently released Quinnipiac poll. Trump, however, received 10% support of black voters who said they would “definitely” or “consider” supporting him in the general election in that same poll.
Buttigieg does not see his criticisms or actions against his own police force as politically expedient moves to gain the support of black voters this election cycle, he said Saturday in Las Vegas at an AFSCME union event for 2020 candidates.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Buttigieg told the Washington Examiner. The South Bend Police Department are my co-workers. They also have a responsibility to help us confront the consequences of racism because until we do, it’s a lot harder to do their job. Look, policing is a tough profession in the best of times.”
He continued, “It is particularly difficult now with all of the issues that are going around that surround the badge and these issues weigh down the badge even of the best human being ever to put on a uniform.”
Buttigieg was accused by South Bend’s police union back in June for using a police-involved shooting, involving a white officer that led to the death of a black man, to help his campaign for the White House.
After Buttigieg called for a special prosecutor to investigate the case, the police union stated, “Mayor Buttigieg’s focus on this incident is solely for his political gain and not the health of the city he serves.”
Buttigieg said of the shooting that “all police work and all of American life takes place in the shadow of racism, which hurts everyone and everything it touches. Historic racism, present-day racism, and generational racism – they all secrete a kind of poison into the bloodstream of this country.”
The police union responded in part: “Mayor Buttigieg’s comments have already and will continue to have a detrimental effect on local law enforcement offices and law enforcement officers nationwide.”
Despite Buttigieg’s efforts to earn the trust of black Democratic voters through anti-racism plans and proposals, his support from Democratic primary voters as a whole in the early states has stalled. A CBS News poll in Iowa, for example, showed him with 11% support back in June now shows him with 7% support.
In the same poll, his support in New Hampshire had him at 10% in June, but Granite State Democrats now only support him at 7%.
When asked about these numbers by Wallace, Buttigieg replied, “We’re not following 3% or 4% swings in polls eight months out from when the voting takes place.”
He later added, “We’re a long way from the finish line. This is where you do the sometimes not very glamorous work of building the organizations on the ground that are going to deliver us to victory in the early states. Our message is resonating.”
