DOVER, New Hampshire — Pete Buttigieg blasted President Trump’s recent social media summit, saying the White House gathering distracted the country from acting on any common ground.
“We can’t let this whole conversation be about the president,” the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 presidential candidate said at a campaign stop in Dover, New Hampshire. “Why do you think the president … basically the president of the United States invited the comments section off YouTube to join him in the Rose Garden and then let everybody watch the show?”
Buttigieg, speaking to a crowd of about 800 in the early voting state’s seacoast region the day after Trump’s White House social media event, mentioned the example as part of his pitch as to why he’s the Democrats’ best chance of beating the president next year.
“Why would he do that?” the 37-year-old asked. “Well, the show is mesmerizing. Like all grotesque things, the show is hard to look away from. We’ve got to walk and chew gum at the same time. When he lies, we’ve got to name the lie and tell the truth. When he does something wrong, we’ve got to confront it and move right back to our center of gravity, which is how we make your life better off because the less we’re talking about him, the more we’re talking about you.”
Buttigieg is using his one-day swing through the state to tout his new Douglass Plan, which outlines his ideas on how the nation could “dismantle racist structures and systems” and invest in the African American community. The proposal comes after the openly gay, married former Navy Reserve officer faced angry constituents last month for his response to the shooting of a black man by a white police officer in his hometown.
In Dover Friday, the mayor was pressed on whether he was “pandering” to African American voters. Earlier, he had described black issues as not being a “specialty topic.”
“The black voters deserve to be addressed with serious policy proposals. This is not just politics, this is the right thing to do,” he said in reply.
Buttigieg, who outraised the more than 20 presidential hopefuls during the second quarter of 2019 by hauling in $24 million, is experiencing a slump in early polls. He averages 5.3% support, according to RealClearPolitics data.
