South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the next version of Barack Obama and not in a good way. He is adored by the media for his charisma, left-wing politics, purported intelligence, and would be another "first" if he were elected. Perhaps nowhere is the Mayor Pete Fan Club better personified better than MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski.
After showing video of Buttigieg taking on a heckler at a rally who was ranting about Sodom and Gomorrah, Brzezinski found another way to compare Buttigieg to Obama. She hailed Buttigieg for handling the heckler, "in a way that made you want to be there with him and I'm going to tell you, as much as Republicans completely misunderstood Obama and had no idea how to handle an African-American nominee, they will not be able to handle this guy."
She then attempted to tie Republicans to the heckler, "This is the bottom line, the fact that the protester and Republicans might have been watching, thinking, 'This is the moment he goes down, because everyone will expose his'--no. It's not going to happen."
The only person to make Pete Buttigieg's sexual orientation an issue in the campaign thus far has been Buttigieg himself, in his ongoing battle against his caricature of Vice President Mike Pence, whom he by all accounts had a positive, working, and professional relationship with until he decided to run for president.
Buttigieg is scheduled to be on Morning Joe Thursday. Morning Joe could ask him about how he realistically plans to pay for his "Medicare For All Who Want It" plan or how his radical support for late-term abortions is out of step with not just Christians-- which is noteworthy considering he has made his faith a big part of his campaign-- but also with Americans more broadly, even Democrats. More likely, they'll skip those topics and probably just tell him how brave he was for taking on Mike Pence.
Here is a transcript for her April 17 remarks:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6:14 AM ET
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Also, what he did right there in front of 1,000 people, he exposed hate with love and he did it beautifully, pastorally. He did it in a way that made you want to be there with him and I'm going to tell you, as much as the Republicans completely misunderstood Barack Obama, and had no idea how to handle an African-American Democratic nominee, they will not be able to handle this guy. Because he is truly working from a good center and has the words and education and the articulation and the grounding to express it to people who even don't understand him. It's called depth. It's called moral compass. It's called faith and tt's called love for America. He is going to be very hard to handle, if they try to take him on for something he is absolutely not embarrassed about. In fact, he embraces who he is, and he embraces his God. This is the bottom line, the fact that that protester and Republicans might have been watching, thinking, “this is the moment he goes down, because everyone will expose his” -- no. It's not going to happen.
