Pete Buttigieg took Joe Biden’s criticism that he is not a transformative candidate, such as Barack Obama, and turned it back on him.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor was asked to respond to a comment the former vice president made when a reporter pointed out that he attacked Obama on his lack of experience in the 2008 campaign, similar to how he is casting doubt on Buttigieg’s experience.
“This guy’s not a Barack Obama,” Biden, 77, said Saturday.
“Well, he’s right; I’m not. And neither is he,” Buttigieg, 38, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “Neither is any of us running for president. And this isn’t 2008; it’s 2020.”
He continued with a common retort casting Biden as representing the politics of the past, saying, “We are facing the most disruptive president in modern times, and I don’t think the same playbook that helped us get here is going to work against him.”
Several 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, particularly Biden, have leaned on connections to Obama when pitching their campaigns to voters.
Earlier on Saturday, Biden debuted a negative digital ad that compared his experience to that of the former mayor.
“Joe Biden helped lead the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which gave healthcare to 20 million people. And when parkgoers called on Pete Buttigieg, he installed decorative lights under bridges,” a narrator in a portion of the ad said.
Former Mayor Pete doesn’t think very highly of the Obama-Biden record. Let’s compare. pic.twitter.com/132TB7MHaq
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2020
Buttigieg addressed the ad in the CNN interview.
“It’s a typical political attack, and it’s too bad, because, you know, so many communities — communities like mine in South Bend — we know that we might look small from the perspective of Washington, but to us, it’s what’s going on in Washington that looks so small and small-minded,” he said.
