Pete Buttigieg singled out Democratic primary rivals Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders by name while arguing he’s best positioned to take on President Trump in 2020, a notable shift from his usual indirect swipes.
“I hear Vice President Biden saying that this is no time to take a risk on someone new. But history has shown us that the biggest risk we could take with a very important election coming up is to look to the same Washington playbook and recycle the same arguments and expect that to work against a president like Donald Trump,” Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and the youngest candidate in the race at 38, said during a campaign stop in Decorah, Iowa, on Thursday.
Buttigieg has pitched himself as a happy medium with the best elements of both the Vermont senator, 78, and the former vice president, 77, in that he is a fresh face that can inspire enthusiasm, but not so radical that he will alienate voters with a purist left-wing policy approach.
“Then I hear Sen. Sanders calling for a kind of politics that says you’ve got to go all the way here and nothing else counts,” Buttigieg continued. “And it’s coming at the very moment when we actually have a historic majority, not just aligned around what it is we’re against, but agreeing on what it is we’re for. A majority ready to make sure that the public sector steps up and delivers healthcare, just not so sure about the idea of forcing everybody onto that public plan. A majority that’s ready for a game-changing transformation in the affordability of college, but not so sure about the idea of covering every last penny for the tuition of the children of millionaires and billionaires.”
[Read more: Buttigieg draws electability contrasts with Biden and Sanders in late Iowa pitch]
While Sanders proposes free college tuition regardless of income and a “Medicare for all” healthcare system that would eliminate private insurance, Buttigieg proposes making college tuition-free for families earning less than $100,000 and a public option for healthcare that would keep much of the private insurance sector intact.
Until Thursday, Buttigieg had declined to name his rivals when criticizing their candidacies. However, his campaign sent out fundraising emails in the last week targeting Sanders.
One fundraiser email highlighted a New York Times story that said Trump’s advisers see Sanders as “their ideal Democratic opponent” in November. “If things stay steady until the Iowa Caucuses in just nine days, Bernie Sanders could be the nominee of our party. But we need a candidate who can beat Donald Trump,” another fundraising email said.
Buttigieg on Monday refused to name Sanders when several reporters asked him multiple questions about the emails.
“I stand by any of the communications that have come out from my campaign on this,” Buttigieg said in Boone, Iowa.
Biden and Sanders are Buttigieg’s biggest competitors for a strong showing in Iowa, which analysts believe is essential for his path to the Democratic presidential nomination. The RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls has Sanders leading the field at 23.8%, Biden at 20.2%, and Buttigieg at 15.8%. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is in fourth place with 14.6%, followed by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar in a distant third at 9.6%.
