- Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana
and famous boy detective.
(upbeat music)
First things first, a lot of people are asking,
how do you pronounce this guy's name?
It's pronounced Pete, okay?
It's like peaches, but you just stop, all right?
Pee, that's it.
Oh, and as for his last name,
we're still figuring that one out.
- Pete Buttigeg, Buttiget, Buttigeg.
- [Female Anchor] South Bend Mayor Pete Buttige, Buttigeg,
I always say this wrong.
- [Male Anchor] Buttigeg.
- [Female Anchor] Buttijeg.
- [Male Anchor] Indiana Mayor Pete Bugeteg.
- Buttijeg.
- [Male Anchor] Buttigig.
- Buttigig?
- [Male Anchor] Mayor Pete Buttedgedge.
- [Male Anchor] Pete Buttegeg, edge edge.
- On Pete Buttigieg.
- Peter Buttag, the mayor of Indianapolis.
- [Male Reporter] Best way to pronounce your last name?
(laughs)
- Buttigieg, but around South Bend,
they just call me Mayor Pete and that's fine with me.
- Oh thank God, Mayor Pete.
We'll take Mayor Pete, we'll take Mayor Pete.
Yeah, because people are really struggling with this one.
It's not Buttiedge, it's not Buttijay,
and it's definitely not Buttag.
(audience laughs)
But now that we're on the same page on how to say his name,
what has he done?
- The guy who's only 37, Pete Buttigieg,
boasts an impressive resume.
First elected mayor of his hometown at age 29,
a Harvard educated Rhodes scholar,
as well as a Lieutenant in the Navy reserve.
- [Male Anchor] Took an unpaid seven month leave
during his mayoral term for a deployment to Afghanistan.
- [Female Anchor] Not only the first openly gay
Presidential candidate, he's also a newlywed.
- [Female Anchor] Would be a President of firsts.
The first to be elected in his 30s, the first millennial,
the first openly gay Commander in Chief,
and the first Mayor.
- This is the only chance you'll ever get to vote
for a Maltese American, left handed, Episcopalian,
gay war veteran, mayor, millennial.
(audience laughs)
- Okay, wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
Maltese American?
Are you guys telling me this guy is part little dog?
(audience laughs)
Because if that's true,
he is gonna win every white person's vote in this country.
White people love them little ass dogs.
(audience laughs)
Love them!
But seriously though, I can see why people are impressed
by Buttigieg, right?
He has such a unique bio.
He's a veteran, a Harvard graduate and a Rhodes scholar
who's openly gay and also so young that if he served
two terms as President, when he came out,
he would still only be 46.
Yeah, plus he's a concert pianist
and speaks seven languages, including Norwegian,
which he learned just so that he could read Norwegian books.
(audience laughs)
Compare that to America's current President,
who has read zero books and is fluent in zero languages.
Now if you're watching this, going,
"Trevor, why are you only showing us the positive things
"about Pete Buttigieg?"
Because that's all we could find, all right?
(audience laughs)
No, I'm being serious.
There's no dirt on this guy, like nothing.
Usually candidates have some skeletons somewhere,
but even his skeletons are singing his praises.
"He gave me calcium for my bones."
(audience laughs)
He's the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
and host of Nathan For You.
He did a Fox Hall, he did a Fox Town Hall on Sunday
and he showed that visiting Fox doesn't have to mean
that you endorse them.
- You know, a lot of folks in my party were critical of me
for even doing this with Fox News.
I mean, when you got Tucker Carlson saying that immigrants
make America dirty, when you've got Laura Ingram comparing
detention center with children in cages to summer camps,
then there is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard
and think twice before participating
in this media ecosystem.
But I also believe that there are a lot of Americans
who my party can't blame if they are ignoring our message
'cause they will never hear it
if we don't go on and talk about it.
I hope you'll join me in making sure that that next era
is better than any that we've had so far.
(audience claps and cheers)
- Thank you Mayor, and thank you -
wow, a standing ovation.
- Wow, standing ovation.
Pete Buttigieg went on Fox News,
trashed their most popular anchors
and then got a standing ovation at the end.
That is amazing!
(audience cheers)
That is amazing!
Because if someone came to your house
and told you how ugly your kids were,
you'd probably be like, "Get the hell out of here."
You wouldn't be like, (claps)
"Someone had to say it.
"You got a big ass head Billy, you got a big ass head.
"Someone had to say it."
(audience laughs)
And it wasn't just the audience.
Some reporters on Fox News actually credited Buttigieg
for coming onto their network.
But the kids with the big ass heads,
they weren't as happy.
- Mayor Pete, who desperately needs a re-Boot-i-gieg.
Now when he wasn't pushing for tax increases
or lobbing lame cheap shots, he was trying to pass off
political pablum as some type of high minded oratory.
Maybe we should call him Pope Pete, because don't you love
how he - because he attends church, we're supposed
to treat him as the be all and end all moral authority
or the arbiter of who is and who is not
operating in good faith.
- Okay?
(audience laughs)
I get that Lura Ingram is trying to diss Pete,
but I don't know if she achieved that by calling him Pope.
(audience laughs)
People like The Pope.
It's not a great diss.
It's like going, "You know this guy Steve is always
"walking around being a dick to everyone,
"let's call him Big Dick Steve.
"That'll show him.
"Everyone will know what a big throbbing dick he has -
"I mean, he is."
Pete Buttigieg, democratic candidate,
mayor of South Bend, and real life Boss Baby.
(audience laughs)
Over the weekend, he did an interview Axios on HBO,
and one thing he said took the reporter
a little by surprise.
- If you were to win the nomination,
they'll say you're too young, too liberal, too gay
to be Commander in Chief.
You are young, you are liberal, you are gay.
How will you respond?
- People will elect the person
who will make the best President.
And we have had excellent Presidents who have been young.
We have had excellent Presidents who have been liberal.
I would imagine we've probably had excellent Presidents
who were gay, we just didn't know which ones.
- You believe that we've had a gay Commander in Chief?
- I mean, statistically, it's almost certain.
- Like in your reading of history,
do you believe you know who they were?
- My gay-dar doesn't even work that well in the present,
let alone retroactively.
(audience and Trevor laughs)
- Oh man.
That was such a great response.
I love how the journalist was like, "who?"
(Trevor stammers)
It's so funny that the journalist thinks
because Buttigieg is gay,
he automatically knows who else is gay.
Like gay people can even recognize each other
across time, yeah?
It's the same way when I tell people I'm from Africa,
some people are like, "oh my God, you're from Africa.
"Do you know Mufasa?"
I'm like, "No, you idiot.
"We went to different high schools, come on."
(audience laughs)
Also, Buttigieg is a better man than me
'cause you realize he could have said any President is gay
and that guy would've believed him.
Yeah, he could have been like,
"Well, Thomas Jefferson was totally gay."
Guy would be like, "What, how can you tell?"
He'd be like, "Oh I can tell."
(audience laughs)
Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana
and kid who always asks for more homework
is getting attention for what he's saying in his ads.
- Pete Buttiegieg has a new kind of position or an ad
this weekend that was airing in Iowa
about education, listen.
- I believe we should move to make college
affordable for everyone.
There are some voices saying, "Well that doesn't count
"unless you go even further, unless it's free,
"even for the kids of millionaires."
But I only wanna make promises that we can keep.
- [Female Anchor] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes,
a Bernie Sanders supporter,
slamming the new Iowa front runner, tweeting,
"This is a GOP talking point
"used to dismantle public systems
"and it's sad to see a Dem candidate adopt it."
- Ooh, Pete, you in trouble.
(audience laughs)
This is an interesting one.
Pete Buttigieg says that he supports free public college,
but it shouldn't apply to rich people's kids.
And in response, rich people said,
"What the (beep) is a public college?"
(audience laughs)
"Is that like a public toilet?
"I think I've heard of those."
No, but jokes aside, this ad is getting
a lot of backlash, right?
Because Buttigieg has basically drawn criticism
from the progressive wing of his party,
because they argue, if the government provides a service,
the service should be available
to all of its citizens, right?
It's the same way a public library doesn't ask
how rich you are before they let you in to masturbate.
It's a public library, everyone can masturbate,
that's what it's there for.
(audience laughs)
Now, despite the backlash, Buttigieg's campaign
is still steadily on the rise.
The major change from the last debate
is the rise of Pete Buttigieg, all right?
Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and the only adult
Michael Jackson would be into.
Over the past few weeks, he has surged
from the middle of the pack to take the lead
in Iowa and New Hampshire.
So now, between Buttigieg, Biden, Warren and Bernie,
this has become a four way race.
And if you include Corey Booker, it's still a four way race.
(audience laughs)
So with Buttigieg rising in the polls,
tonight the moderators asked him something
a lot of people are wondering,
why should a teenage mayor from South Bend, Indiana
become President of the United States?
- Mayor Buttigieg, let's talk about your record
as a candidate.
Why should Democrats take the risk of betting on you?
- In order to defeat this President, we need somebody
who can go toe to toe, who actually comes from
the kinds of communities that he's been appealing to.
I don't talk a big game about helping the working class
while helicopter-ing between golf courses
with my name on them.
I don't even golf.
As a matter of fact, I never thought
I'd be on a Forbes magazine list but they did one
of all the candidates by wealth
and I am literally the least wealthy person on this stage.
- Yeah, Pete Buttigieg may be the poorest person
on that stage, but Bernie was like,
"Yes, but I look the poorest."
(audience laughs)
"And that should count for something."
You know, it's actually funny how running for President
is the only time people brag
about how much money they don't have.
(audience laughs)
All right, it's like they're all bizzaro rappers, you know?
"Started from the bottom, never left."
(audience laughs)
"Started from the bottom and my whole team
"is in the exact same place
"because there's been no upward mobility
"for the last 30-40 years in this country."
Why do you think your candidacy
is catching on like wildfire?
- I think it's actually all the same reasons
that made my candidacy kind of unlikely.
The fact that I'm a mayor at a time when people
are frustrated with Washington
and looking for different sources of leadership.
The fact that I'm from the Industrial Midwest,
which is a place that Democrats have sometimes struggled
to connect with.
And the fact that I'm from a new generation,
which I think raised some eyebrows early on,
but I think it's one of the reasons
why it makes sense to do this.
And I think all of those things that we thought
might be constraints when we got into it,
it actually helped demonstrate that I'm not like the others
and I represent something different.
- I think you're not like anybody, to be honest.
No, because when you look at your resume and your story,
it genuinely seemed like you were created in a lab,
specifically to run - no, I mean, listen to this,
this is who Mayor Pete is, just a little bit.
I mean, listen to this.
You have someone who is a Rhodes scholar, a war veteran,
gay and religious, speaks multiple languages,
and you're from the Heartland.
You also have executive experience,
like what's the major scandal?
You should just tell us now.
There's gonna be - like, where are the bodies?
Are they in the basement?
Are they -
- No bodies.
- No bodies?
Is that just you?
Is that how you've lived your life and then happened
to coincide with the Presidential campaign?
Or is this what you've cultivated in your life?
- I mean, most of the turns in my life
came as something of a surprise.
Even when I was interested in politics as a student,
I never would have guessed that local government
would have been where I found a lot of meaning.
I'm not sure I would have guessed that moving home
to South Bend, Indiana would have been how I would
really find purpose and kind of make my fortunes.
Not a financial fortune, but you know,
my kinda professional life would be so fulfilling.
I think, so much of this is the element of surprise.
I mean, five or 10 years ago, you would not have said,
"If we're gonna cook up the ideal Presidential candidate,
"let's have a 30-something gay mayor from the Midwest."
Right?
- It's almost like you've come about at a time
when society is at a place -
- Yeah, in no other time in the last 200 years, right,
would somebody like me have fit a Presidential campaign.
But we're living in this moment, maybe the only moment,
for the last 200 or the next 200 years.
But I think when you're deciding whether to run
for any office, what you gotta do is you look at the moment,
you look at the constituency - the district or the city
or the country or whatever office you're running for -
say, what does it call for in this moment?
And to my surprise too at first,
I realized that this is a moment that just might call
for somebody like me.
- More recently, you've been thrust into the news
in and around issues regarding voters who are black.
People have said, "Mayor Pete, it feels like you have
a blind spot when it comes to black voters in America."
Whether it be the fact that in South Bend,
when South Bend's economy rose up,
black people didn't rise up as much, they stayed in poverty.
You've had issues in and around conversations
around the black Police Chief.
What do you think you're gonna do?
How are you going to appeal to black voters?
- I think a lot of it is the importance of outreach.
So there are people who will find their way to you,
and those are your core supporters.
And then there are the people who will never hear from you
unless you reach out to them.
This is important for me back home too,
not everyone knows that South Bend
is a racially diverse city, we're about 40-45% non-white.
As you mentioned, we had some very painful issues,
especially in my first days and months as Mayor
around race and policing, around neighborhoods.
We have a lot of racial inequality in our city,
not because we want to
but it's shown me that good intentions are not enough.
You have to have intention around your policies.
And we're working on everything back in South Bend
from black entrepreneurship to investing
in historically disinvested neighborhoods.
I think the same thing has to happen at the national level.
These racial inequities didn't just happen,
they're not an accident.
They're, in many cases, the consequence of racist policies,
which means we have to have, not just non-racist policies,
but anti-racist policies, if we're ever going to see
these things equalize in our lifetime.
And I may not be able to convince every voter out there
to be for me, but at the very least, I need to make sure
that every voter out there knows that I'm for them.
(audience cheers)
(upbeat music)