Pete Buttigieg criticized the socialist policies proposed by primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders during the eighth Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.
“Our nominee is dividing people with a politics that says, ‘If you don’t go all the way to the edge, it doesn’t count,'” the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said at the Friday night event, “a politics that says, ‘It’s my way or the highway.’”
“Are you talking about Sen. Sanders?” asked ABC News debate moderator George Stephanopoulos.
“Yes,” Buttigieg responded.
Buttigieg, 38, and Sanders, 78, are in a tight race in the Iowa caucuses after a voting app crashed during the Tuesday night vote, making Democratic Party officials and media outlets wait for a vote tally. Sanders has put forward policy plans that would nationalize healthcare, education, and the internet.
Buttigieg was first to claim victory after 62% of the vote was released, but Sanders’s campaign said they won after more than 97% of the vote was tabulated on Thursday. Buttigieg has a razor-thin lead after 100% of the results came in, although there have been calls for a recanvass.
“Politically, we are facing a fundamentally new problem with President Donald Trump,” Buttigieg said. “So, the biggest risk we could take at a time like this would be to go up against that fundamentally new challenge by trying to fall back on the familiar.”
