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(indistinct chatter)
CHASTEN BUTTIGIEG: Hey, Tru.
JESSE MOSS: Um, anything, um,
you-you want to make sure that I ask him? Um...
CHASTEN: But... I do think it would be
interesting to ask him, um,
like, "When you were young and confronting your identity,
did you ever think that this was possible?"
Yeah. Yeah, um...
Uh, I love that.
He did everything to climb every ladder
without being his authentic self.
I think people don’t understand how traumatic that is
for people who push themselves so deep in the closet...
-Yeah. -...and deny their identity...
-Mm-hmm. -...in order to achieve.
So I’d ask him, like, you know, "You spent so much of your life,
"in a way, hiding who you truly were.
-Mm-hmm. -"Did you feel like you were
able to be your true self on the campaign trail?"
-Yeah. -I want to, um...
You think he’s ready to answer that question?
Can he answer that?
-He-he should. He’ll try. -Yeah.
Ready?
-PETE BUTTIGIEG: Yeah. -Come sit down.
PETE: (clears throat) This isn’t too regal, is it?
Should we get a blanket or something?
CHASTEN: So, I gave Jesse
some questions that I’d really like for you to answer,
and maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t.
(mouths)
-Don’t bullshit us, Peter, okay? -(chuckles) Okay, let’s do it.
♪ ♪
TREVOR NOAH: First things first.
A lot of people are asking,
"How do you pronounce this guy’s name?"
(audience laughing)
-It’s pronounced "Pete." -(laughter)
Pete Buttige...
B-Buttiget. Buttigeg.
Butti-jeg. Butti-jeg?
-REPORTER: Butti-gig. -Butti-gig?
Boot... edge, edge.
REPORTER 2: A hometown boy who went to Harvard
and became a Rhodes Scholar,
only to return to the city where he grew up.
REPORTER 3: Buttigieg took over just after Newsweek
declared his hometown one of America’s dying cities.
South Bend’s golden age was in the 1950s,
but in the early ’60s, the Studebaker factory shut down
and took the city’s economy along with it.
He has done things to turn around housing in the area.
He’s done things with pedestrianizing the city.
REPORTER 4: He transformed an old factory
into a business park for tech companies.
He raised the minimum wage for city employees.
We would be well served if Washington started to look
more like our best-run cities and towns
rather than the other way around.
(applause)
REPORTER 5: No politician has ever gone
straight from the mayor’s office to the White House.
Pete Buttigieg thinks he can be the first to do it.
REPORTER 6: He’s not only the first openly gay
presidential candidate; he’s also a newlywed.
Most people are either supportive
or even enthusiastic about the idea
of the first out person, uh, going this far.
Or they find a way to let me know they don’t care.
A-And that’s historic, too.
This is the only chance you’ll ever get
to vote for a Maltese American left-handed Episcopalian
gay war veteran mayor millennial.
(laughter, applause)
REPORTER 7: 2020 may be the most crowded and diverse
Democratic field of all time.
The big question for the long-shot mayor is:
How will he stand out in such an experienced crowd?
My name is Pete Buttigieg.
(cheering)
They call me Mayor Pete.
(cheering)
I am a proud son of South Bend, Indiana,
and I am running for President of the United States.
(cheering)
(birds chirping)
(Pete whistling a tune)
(pen writing)
PETE: ♪ I’m just a bill ♪
♪ Just a regular bill ♪
♪ And I’m sitting here on the mayor’s desk. ♪
-This is how a bill becomes law. -Mm-hmm.
7.3 million bucks.
Of course it’s a leap going from being a mayor
to being a presidential candidate.
(whirring)
But it’s not like I would say, you know,
"We’ve taken sewer automation to the next level.
It’s world-class. Clearly, I should seek the presidency."
(laughing): Right? It wasn’t, like,
kind of, "A" led to "B" in that way.
Uh, you know, one thing people definitely
expect from their city
is that we take care of the trash, the leaves,
uh, water and wastewater.
That work never ends no matter, uh,
what other things are getting a lot of attention these days.
I started feeling like what was happening in the country
and what was happening in our city
were more and more one and the same.
-Yours is the story that I’m telling. -(cheering)
And since what was happening in the city broadly worked,
I realized I had something to offer that was just different.
First of all, if you watch the way
wages stagnate and union participation has fallen,
those two things started at the same time.
I saw something in common with
the alienation or the fear
of people worried about auto jobs
and alienation
or fear of a kid coming out,
because they all had to do with where you fit,
and that there was way more overlap in those...
those stories than you would think.
The-the more I-I understood it,
the more I found ways to give voice to it,
and it all came down to that theme of belonging.
It wasn’t a great man thing.
It-it wasn’t like I thought, like,
I’m gonna bestride the earth here
and-and, you know, sweep history this way instead of that way,
but it was kind of like...
somebody needs to say this, and actually,
we need a president who understands this.
And I think I understand this.
I’m gonna go out here and see
if people share that understanding.
Senator, it’s, uh, Pete Buttigieg calling.
How are you?
MAN (on phone): I’m sorry. Who is this?
PETE: Uh, Pete Buttigieg calling
with birthday greetings for the senator.
MAN: Oh. Let me see if he can speak to you.
PETE: Okay.
Well, thank you. (chuckles)
(smooth jazz music plays over phone)
RECORDED VOICE: Your call is very important to us.
Please hold.
WOMAN: Hi. How are you? Good to see you.
-All right. Lead the way. -All right, this way.
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your service.
-Oh, I appreciate that, sir. -I like what I’m hearing.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much.
-Good luck to you. -How you doing? Thank you.
Mayor Pete, can I get you to sign my hat, please?
Oh, wow, look at that. You bet.
MAN: Thank you very much. Good luck.
-PETE: Thank you. Appreciate it. -WOMAN: Mayor Pete!
-All right. -This way.
All right. Lead the way.
-I’m Denise. -Nice to see you.
I think you’re the real thing.
-(laughing) -Well, thank you. I hope so.
-(laughs) I better be. -WOMAN: The real thing.
Thanks a lot for coming.
Oh, you bet. Yeah, my husband and I both already think,
-oh, it’s amazing. -Great. Great.
Tell some friends. We’re still trying to win...
We are. Yeah, we’re telling friends.
-Good. Thank you. -Nice to meet you.
-Same here. Glad I got to meet you. -Best of luck. Save us.
-(laughter) -That’s what I’m here for.
PETE: Uh, first of all, I get the audacity of someone like me
trying to do something like this.
But I also believe we are at a moment
that calls for greater change
than we have seen in a long time.
And that’s why I’m bringing my admittedly unorthodox story
into this picture.
Coming from a community where young people grow up
getting the message that the only way
you can succeed is to get out.
I found purpose right at home.
And our city’s story-- one that started this decade
on a list of dying communities
and is now growing in jobs and population
at a clip we haven’t seen in my lifetime.
The reason that’s so important
is that we need to tell a different story
than the one that’s being sold out of the White House,
which would have you believe that the only way to speak
to communities like yours and like mine
is through resentment,
that the only way we can be better off
is to stop the clock and turn it back.
That’s just not true.
I think we can reach people
who may have stopped listening to what we have to say.
Where is it written that a so-called red state
or red county has to be red forever?
We got to get out there and talk to them.
This is the way that we can begin to win
not just an election but an era.
So, can I count on you for some help?
(cheering, applause)
Such a polar opposite of what we’ve been...
-Yes. Yes. -You know, he’s smart and he’s calm.
-In that sense, you couldn’t have a stronger... -Yeah. Yeah.
And he’s self-effacing and just, like,
he’s so opp-- he can’t be--
-he’s just the exact opposite. -Oh, dear.
To me, it also illustrates kind of
the resilience of our democracy
that somebody unknown and implausible
is kind of bubbling up in this way.
-Yeah. -You know, I mean, it just says there’s some...
MAN: We were waiting for the right person to come along.
WOMAN: Yeah, it’s very interesting, very interesting.
-PETE: Morning. How you doing? -(whooping) -Morning.
-Oh, my God. Hello, sir. -Good morning. How you doing?
PETE: I don’t have a lot of the qualities you would expect,
both in terms of profile and in terms of style.
-How’s your morning going? -Good.
The idea of somebody like a Bill Clinton, who famously
had this power to just make total strangers like him,
was-was fascinating, and I wondered if that meant
you had to have that kind of special power,
that kind of gregarious charisma
to-to be in politics at that level.
You have this image, right, of what a president
or a presidential candidate will look like.
Um...
but then challenging that image was part of the idea.
♪ ♪
MAN: Yep, so it’s-it’s... sure, it’s "Pete for America."
WOMAN: Pete!
PETE: Look at this.
They feel like a real life office.
How you doing?
-Happy first day. -Hi. Thank you.
Settling in all right?
-Yep. -Good.
We have access to the whole voter file now--
-all 50 states and DC. -PETE: Good.
Bought it all outright.
I’ve known Pete since we started high school.
Pete’s pretty introverted. He’s pretty quiet.
Policy and some of that stuff is his sort of natural habitat.
You know, if he wasn’t involved in politics
or public service, I mean, like, he would be completely content
teaching and reading
and doing that kind of thing.
Pivot... Did somebody say "pivot table"?
-WOMAN: (gasps) Pivot table! -I love pivot tables.
-What are you trying to do? -Okay.
MIKE: But he’s in a very public-facing role.
-PETE: Do, like, the total of that column. -WOMAN: Okay.
And then the percent lives there.
-Thank you so much. -That felt so great.
-(laughing) -Not good.
MIKE: Pete is a different kind of candidate,
and I think that we can be a different kind of campaign.
Just be really, really kind
and just be good listeners, you know,
don’t talk ill of other candidates or campaigns.
I’d love for us to reflect Pete and the values that he has.
There are so many people who are running this year.
A really respected two-term vice president is running.
The runner-up to the last
presidential nominating process for our party is running.
So just that learning curve is just so much steeper for us,
and you do need to run a nimble campaign
and be a little bit different, I think,
to get attention and excitement.
Right away, we’re gonna bring on probably about 50 staff in Iowa,
40 staff in New Hampshire, 20 staff in Nevada,
20 staff in South Carolina.
I really want to make it so that people
just feel like they’re part of this family.
How many people do you have on board so far?
-Three? -Yeah.
(laughter)
LIS SMITH: Dude, how stoked are you?
I told you Pete Buttigieg was gonna take off.
What’s the explanation, is that he’s selling...
that he’s offering something completely different
and is the absolute opposite of Donald Trump,
and that’s what people want.
He sounds completely different from everyone else out there.
And he’s not going out there and-and performing for people.
He’s not out there as a circus act.
I-I really, really do think it’s as much about his style
and about as much as who he is as a person
as it is about, like, policy and all of that stuff.
We did see a lane, even if it was a narrow one,
and it’s just... everything’s come together
a lot faster than expected.
PETE: So, what do we got to cover in this hour?
LIS: Um, debate prep.
This will be, by far, the largest audience
that you’ve had during this campaign.
PETE: Basically, we’re talking about approximately 15 sentences
that I’ll be reading on air to explain...
Exactly. Exactly. That’s what matters. Yeah.
It’s not even a debate. It’s a media opportunity.
Well, right. Thank you.
All right, now we’re on the same page.
MAN: They have to have some amount of exchange, though,
because if it’s just a question-and-answer thing,
it’s terrible television,
and they’re trying to make television.
Yeah, ’cause you could give some, like, baller-ass,
wonky answer on North Korea, but no one will give a shit
because, like, that’s... North Korea’s not
where people’s hearts and minds are right now, you know...
PETE: Lis, she certainly embodies
the sort of killer instinct that-that I think
a lot of people associate with politics.
It’s why people like you-- you speak in paragraphs--
but, like, got to, you know,
make them, like, two-sentence paragraphs.
PETE: You know, she’s always kind of
walking the space between who I am coming into this
and all the ways that I’m not like the others
and these kind of requirements
or at least expectations that the game has for you.
The challenge, of course, is-- how do you master the game
without it changing you?
Another question is-- how much more
should we do to root this in biography?
It’s like, look at this young Midwestern veteran
who’s kind of out there, right?
Um...
and then we just got to make sure
that doesn’t read as very white.
LIS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good.
(indistinct chatter)
AL SHARPTON: Let’s give the man some food.
-(laughter) -MAN: Yeah!
(indistinct chatter)
-SERVER: And bread. -Thank you.
-Enjoy. -Thanks.
-You eat light? -Yeah.
Blessing?
-(indistinct chatter) -(cameras clicking rapidly)
PETE: We talked through a number of issues that, uh, affect
our community in South Bend.
We talked also about, uh, an agenda for Black America
that’s gonna be a very important part of my campaign.
Something that focuses on home ownership,
entrepreneurship, health, education
and criminal justice reform
in the context of making sure
our democracy is accessible to everybody.
-(clamoring) -REPORTERS: Mayor Pete!
As the first openly homosexual president candidate,
do you think that’s a plus or a minus
towards your efforts to the Oval Office?
PETE: I don’t believe it makes me any better
or worse at my job.
Uh, I do believe that, uh, anybody who has had
some experience of being viewed as an other,
uh, might be able to draw on that experience
to help them make sure that they tackle
other patterns of exclusion.
I’m not saying that any one person’s experience
is the same as any other’s.
Uh, I’m saying that I believe I can draw on that
in tackling all of the different ways
that different people struggle for belonging in this country.
SHARPTON: Let me say that
we’ve got to deal with homophobia in all communities,
including the Black community, including the faith community,
that we are saying that people
ought to be judged on their merits,
and that is why coming right to the center of Harlem,
saying that we are going to accept
and deal with anyone on their merits,
and I think that’s the statement today that we’re making.
There are some in our community
that have still these homophobic feelings.
They need to understand you cannot be anti-anybody
without justifying others being anti-us.
L-Last question to Dave.
Last quest... last question to Dave Evans.
Mayor, what do you tell people when they say,
"America just is not ready
for someone who is openly gay as their president"?
First of all, I-I’d say that, uh,
language of "America is just not ready,"
uh, is something we’ve heard before.
I think it gives America very little credit.
I wasn’t sure when I came out back home in South Bend,
uh, how South Bend would respond,
but my community lifted me up, uh, as a brother and as a son.
LIS: Great. Thank you guys. Thank you guys.
-(indistinct chatter) -(cameras clicking rapidly)
MAN: Everybody stop, stop, stop, stop.
(dial clicking)
(water running)
(dog barks)
(door closing)
PETE: There wasn’t a moment I fell off my horse
and just knew that this was what I had to do next.
A lot of it was the conversation with Chasten.
(dog whines)
It was like, "Look, I-I think...
I think I might run for president."
(laughs) "What do you think?"
And talking about it and...
just putting it out there on the table as a serious idea.
And then the more you’ve named it,
the more you’ve said it,
the more it starts to become real.
What are you working on?
Foreign policy speech at 11:15.
(inhales deeply)
It’s good, but it needs a lot of work.
Okay, have fun.
(toy squeaks)
(squeaks)
CHASTEN: There’s no denying
that man has the energy and the drive for the office.
He’s always preparing speeches,
he’s always preparing for interviews,
and he still has a full-time job as mayor.
-(glass clatters) -(groans) Peter.
I made Pete promise that we would be our authentic selves
and we would have fun, and make sure that we weren’t
gonna have to sacrifice, you know, our true selves
in order to make this project work.
Cheers.
Can we eat the ice cream before the chicken gets here?
You can do whatever you want. It’s date night.
PETE: Mm.
Date night.
(humming a tune)
CHASTEN: I don’t think I ever assumed this would be
the kind of life that I would have,
so I didn’t prepare for this moment
by studying policy or politics
and preparing to be in the limelight.
In, like, eighth grade,
I ran for student council and just bombed.
But what I am good at talking about is myself,
and right now I think that’s enough for a lot of people.
-(laughter, chatter) -All right.
-I pledge my heart... -GROUP: I pledge my heart...
-To the rainbow... -To the rainbow...
Of the Not So Typical Gay Camp...
-One camp... -One camp...
-Full of pride... -Full of pride...
-Indivisible... -Indivisible...
With affirmation and equal rights for all.
Watch your heads.
(whooping, cheering)
CHASTEN: Um, I went to a high school
of 1,500 kids, and nobody was out.
It was extremely unsafe to be out,
uh, when I went to high school.
I didn’t even know anyone else who may have remotely been gay.
Like, I was always craving
someone to be involved in politics
who would speak the way I would
if I was in the room with those people,
but then all of a sudden, here I am.
(indistinct chatter)
We’re gonna pass out potatoes to make your very own drag tater
that you get to take home with you.
PARTICIPANT: Oh, my gosh! That’s really good.
-Who’s coming out to play? -(deep voice): It’s Cherry.
(laughter)
Being out on the trail gives me the opportunity
to come do things like this.
I mean, this stuff just, like, puts the wind in my sails.
-It just reminds me of the importance of the job. -Yeah.
PARTICIPANT: How do you deal with not only, like,
the homophobia that he gets
but also, like, the... like, just, like,
the attacks that you have to face as, like...
PETE: Chasten had a different role to play than I did,
and we had to figure that out as we went.
The challenge from the get-go was how to be honest and proud
and yet how to do it without it swallowing
who I was or what our campaign was about.
Because, to some people, it was a minor detail.
To some people, it was everything.
-(clamoring) -REPORTER: I know.
-I was showing him. -Yeah, Pete!
Pete, will you answer a tough question?
God loves you. He just doesn’t love your sin.
MAN: You’re a dick.
-Am I? Why do you say that? -You’re a dick.
-Why do you say that? -I see you at all the events.
-You’re a dick. -Hey, what’s up?
Have I... have I... have I shown any dick behavior today?
-You are a dick. Yes. -Besides you coming...
Every time I see you, you show dick behavior.
What-what have I...? Jesus loves you, man.
That’s all you do is dick behavior.
So, can we... so, can we have a-a conversation?
You’re not speaking for Jesus.
I love you, man. Jesus loves you.
You’re not speaking for Jesus.
I’m not. Are you?
’Cause how many times did Jesus call somebody a dick?
-You’re not speaking for Jesus. -What’s going on, brother?
Pete, will you answer a tough question?
CHASTEN: When you agree to run for president,
you are inviting people in
to scrutinize you, to tear you apart.
Many, many, many queer people have grown up
in a society and culture that has told us we don’t belong.
So we’ll... we’ll hold on to one another,
and we’ll push through all the negativity
and the hatred together,
um, ’cause in the end, I mean, we’ve got a campaign to win.
(theme music playing)
JAKE TAPPER: Tonight, Mayor Buttigieg will take questions
from voters in his first nationally televised town hall.
Please welcome Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
PETE: We knew going into the town hall
that I had to have a big night.
Turns out, if you get an hour on national television
and you can use it well,
then that can work wonders for your chances.
TAPPER: Do you think Vice President Pence would be
a-a better or worse president than President Trump?
Ugh. Um...
(scattered laughter)
(audience laughing)
Do... Does it have to be between those two?
TAPPER: Politics is about choices, man. You know that.
PETE: I mean, his interpretation of Scripture
is pretty different from mine, to begin with.
Okay, I... my understanding of Scripture is that it is about
protecting the stranger and the prisoner
and the poor person and that idea of welcome.
-(applause) -That’s...
That’s what I get in the Gospel wh-when I’m in church.
And his has a lot more to do with-with sexuality
and, uh, I don’t know, a certain view of rectitude.
But even if you buy into that,
how could he allow himself to become the...
the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?
Is it that he... is it that he stopped believing in Scripture
when he started believing in Donald Trump?
-I don’t know. I don’t know. -(audience cheering)
CHASTEN: I thought the town hall was a-a great turning point.
He answered every question truthfully, honestly.
He just wants to have a conversation with people.
And that’s where I felt like, thank God.
Like, we had that moment, and it was on a national stage.
A lot of people were paying attention.
Uh, and that’s where it took off-- rather quickly.
(audience cheering)
♪ ♪
CHRIS WALLACE: I got to tell you,
more people have shown up for this town hall
than any of our previous ones.
Why are you suddenly rising in the polls?
Well, I think part of it is that people are looking
for something completely different.
You know, as a mayor, you’re on the front lines.
You are responsible for everything.
One minute, it’s parks and rec; the next minute, it’s
an officer-involved shooting with racial sensitivity.
You have to handle it all.
If you were to, uh, win,
you would be the youngest president
-in American history. -Yeah.
One thing that people might not know about you
is that you speak eight languages,
-among them Norwegian and Maltese. -Uh-huh.
-He’s got a very calming presence, Pete. -Yeah, I...
You’re like the Mister Rogers of the Democratic field.
I’ll-I’ll take that as a compliment.
(applause)
Now that you’ve been on the campaign trail for a while,
how real are you?
(laughter)
REPORTER: He is a veteran. He is honest.
He seems like he’s a lot about empathy here.
PETE: Any government executive job
is not just about passing good policies,
but it’s also about managing,
and most of all, it’s a moral job.
And that’s the part I think
we’re missing today in the presidency.
It’s a moral office, not just a management office.
MIKE: Other people who are
running for president have had just
a constant growth curve...
-Wow! -...after years in politics.
I started in several months ago talking about a wealth tax.
I’m more optimistic about America’s future today
than when I got elected at age 29.
MIKE: This has been, like, point A to point B,
like, light speed.
And so we’ve created moments for him
to take advantage of media opportunities
to get in front of more and more people.
PETE: People are more susceptible
to messages that revolve around hate,
people are more susceptible to xenophobia and to racism
when they feel out of touch
with the political environment that they’re in overall.
And we’d better pay attention to that.
VAN JONES: CNN’s calling you the hottest candidate in this race.
Scarborough basically compared you
to Barack Obama himself.
-How does that feel? -Oh, it feels great.
Uh, you know, I’m trying not to let it go to my head.
Pete Buttigieg has come to surge in fundraising.
Three months ago, most of the people in the country
did not know your name, and now
you are sitting at number three in the polling.
(audience cheering)
♪ Tell me now or never ♪
♪ We’re safe and sound ♪
♪ When we stick together... ♪
(song fades)
-CHASTEN: See you soon. -WOMAN: Safe travels.
-You, too. -See you, Ali. -Bye, Mayor. Bye, Jesse.
-See you soon. -Where should I sit?
-JESSE: How about I bring... Can I bring this bench over? -Yeah.
CHASTEN: What’s meeting your expectations?
And what has surprised you?
PETE (sighs): I think what’s surprised me
is how quickly it’s all popped.
Like, we thought this was gonna be a slow burn, and...
it’s blown up so quickly.
But again, it-it’s blown up and it hasn’t, right?
It’s not like we’re winning.
It’s just that we’re known.
How do you know how to do what you’re doing?
Hmm.
Um...
Well... this whole thing is on-the-job training.
I mean, you learn by doing.
But...
I kind of know what to do ’cause of being mayor.
Like, I know how to handle myself in a TV studio.
The difference is just there’s way more people watching
in the TV studios I go into now.
I know how to work a room.
I know how to explain complicated things.
I know how to repeat myself
without going totally brain-dead.
Um...
and the rest, I think I’m just figuring out.
(chuckles)
(birds chirping)
♪ ♪
REPORTER: This week, as most of the 2020 field
is preparing for the first debates in Miami,
one candidate is dealing with a crisis back home.
A developing story we’ve been following.
The South Bend police officer who fatally shot a man
early Sunday morning has been identified.
The St. Joe County Prosecutor’s Office says
Sergeant Ryan O’Neill is the officer who fired the shot
that killed Eric J. Logan of South Bend.
O’Neill has been placed on paid administrative leave.
PETE: We’d been gearing up for debate prep for weeks,
trying to be in the zone for that,
and chief of staff said that there had been
an officer-involved shooting-- it was a white officer
and that it was a-a Black individual who had been shot.
And then, a little later, we learned that he didn’t make it.
MAN: Father in heaven, our city is hurting
and in pain.
We thank you that you’ve given even our leader,
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, godly, uh, instructions and idea
to bring forth a town hall meeting in our community
where we can be listeners-- good listeners--
unto those who are pained at this time.
We thank you for the questions that you’ve given us
and those questions that shall come from the audience.
Give us wisdom to be able to articulate back
to the questions that shall be raised, O God.
ALL: Amen.
PETE: We are here to have tough conversations,
but I want everyone here at least to be empowered,
and I want to make sure voices are heard.
(clamoring)
My question is: How long before you take action
and you respond to what the community
has been asking for, for years?
PETE: Uh, first of all,
I welcome the spirit of that suggestion.
I’m always trying to get more voices to be heard.
I don’t want to seem defensive, but we’ve taken a lot of steps--
they clearly haven’t been enough--
but I cannot accept the suggestion that we did nothing.
If it were not for the conversations we had,
we might not have done what we did on bias training,
civil rights training, community policing,
introducing the cameras, the online transparency.
But I acknowledge that it has not been enough.
WOMAN: I am raising a seven-year-old grandson
that when he sees the police, he is afraid.
That is not what’s supposed to happen
in America, in Indiana, in 2019.
WOMAN 2: Get the racists off the streets.
It’s disrespectful that I wake up every day scared.
It’s disrespectful that I have three boys
that I have to teach today what to do!
Get them off the streets!
MAN: I want to say I love the city so much
and I want to support y’all, but I refuse to lay down my respect
for these people out here that’s hurt.
To-to say something that’s a photo op
and say something that-that sounds meaningful but it ain’t.
The same process that y’all been telling us to trust,
y’all told us in 2016 when we was...
when we was protesting Aaron Knepper the first time.
-And we tired! -The same process
that y’all asking us to trust,
so how can we trust this process?
How can we ask another Black man to go join
the police department to try to be part of the change
when y’all got sexual harassment, uh...
sexual harassment charges
inside the South Bend Police Department?
Y’all know y’all promote the bad officers
and-and demote the good ones.
Y’all got racism inside of your police department.
How are we supposed to trust you?!
You want our votes-- which I doubt you’re gonna get it--
do your job just so you can have a moral compass
when you leave this place, dawg, ’cause right now,
-the streets is crazy, man. -MAN: All right.
PETE: This is the beginning of the conversation, not the end,
and I need everyone to participate and stay involved,
so you can decide whether or not you believe in me,
but I believe in this city, I believe in you,
and this is part of it, and we’ll keep it up,
and I thank everyone for caring enough to be part of this,
and I thank everyone for believing that there’s
a way forward in our community, because this is our home.
-So thank you. -(applause)
REPORTER: How do you think this is going to impact
your stand with African Americans
not just here in South Bend but nationally, as well?
PETE: I’m sick of these things being talked about
in political terms.
Um, like it’s a show sometimes.
It’s people’s lives.
I am motivated not out of some political imperative
but as somebody whose... whose city is hurting.
Seeing people I’ve known for years
anguished, frustrated, upset, angry--
angry at the city, angry at me--
and I’m angry, too.
REPORTER: I’ve never seen a mayor stand in front of people
who are, like, really being very raw.
Why-why are you doing this?
I just think it’s my job.
Um...
I don’t know if it’s smart or not.
I don’t know if it’s strategic or not.
But it’s my city.
Mayor Pete, with emotions so raw in South Bend right now,
do you feel that you can leave
your community this week to participate
in the Democratic debate?
(quiet, indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
PETE: I’ve never felt a bigger divide
between what was called for
as a candidate and what was required as-as a mayor.
As a candidate, your job is to look good.
And, um,
don’t put yourself in an awkward position.
Um, definitely don’t put yourself in a position where
you symbolize things that-that, uh, are not going well.
And definitely don’t put yourself in a position
where there’s Black residents
yelling at you.
CHASTEN: Sometimes the hardest problems to solve are
what feels like lose-lose situations for a mayor.
I will never claim that Pete’s done everything right.
And I would never say that there haven’t
been issues in South Bend, right?
And, but, you know, they’re not unique to South Bend.
They’re just prevalent all across the country.
I think it takes a lot of guts,
like, two days after a... an officer-involved shooting
to just, like, stand on a stage and just take all the punches.
MAN (over megaphone): The politicians are wounded.
The politicians and their sins.
They need Jesus Christ, folks.
He’s the answer-- Jesus Christ.
He’s the answer to all your problems...
-(voice fades) -(indistinct chatter)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the United States of America!
This is a country of capitalism and freedom!
If you want a job, get a job!
If you want health insurance,
get a freaking job and pay for it yourself!
If you don’t want to be shot
or tased by the police, don’t commit a crime!
LIS: So, um, naturally,
with something tough like yesterday,
the coverage was a little mixed.
Like, Meghan McCain, who loves you,
said that you did a piss-poor job
of connecting with people.
Joy Behar said that... at the town hall
that you looked a little too green,
like you weren’t ready, like you looked a little, um,
you know, not strong enough, really, to do it.
And Axelrod wrote something just about how
one of your greatest strengths is your calm, cool,
-collected demeanor. -PETE: Mm-hmm.
But that, in this situation,
has proven to be your greatest weakness.
And with this debate, so much of it is gonna be--
are you connecting with people?
Are you saying things that project your strength,
that project, you know, the right kind of warmth?
Try to keep your hands above the podium,
’cause down here...
you know, look-look at what this looks like.
You don’t look animated, whereas up here
people get a sense I’m really talking about this.
"You know, Senator Biden, he just said this,
but let me tell you why I disagree with him."
And as long as they’re up here,
you don’t look like a wooden soldier.
You’re in a place here where probably none of these people
expected you to be here with them, right?
So enjoy the moment.
(imitating Bernie Sanders): Look.
(laughter)
The millionaires and billionaires
have been getting away with far too much
-for far too long. -MAN: That’s so good.
LIS: Okay, let’s get started.
How would you rate Mayor Pete’s handling
of the shooting in South Bend?
WOMAN: These sorts of issues need leaders
who can tackle them head-on, and frankly,
it shouldn’t take a Black man losing his life a week ago
for issues that have been apparent
for the last seven years.
So I would frankly say that he’s failed.
PETE: We are all living
in the shadow of systemic racism
that touches communities like mine
and that is a national crisis.
I got a phone call a few days ago
that no mayor ever wants to get.
And even as the details are investigated, we already know
that part of why this has unleashed such anguish
is that this takes place in the shadow
of a country’s worth of abuses and systemic racial injustice.
We need to... That’s why I’m committed to building
a country in which a white person
and a Black person feel the exact same thing
when they encounter a police officer.
LIS: Okay, we can cut it now.
So we haven’t gotten it right.
S-Something just a little bit stronger.
It sounded a little bit wishy-washy on that one.
PETE: The language I’ve heard
from a few mostly mayors or former mayors
is the-the kind of metaphor of running into the fire.
There might be a way to say that, like, as a country,
like, basically, like, the house is on fire, and we’ve got to run
-into the flames on this. -LIS: Mm-hmm. Yep.
One of the things we’ve become good at as a society
is how we skirt this stuff.
And this is definitely true of politics.
I like this head-on thing because we’re talking about
how what you’ve done over the last few days
is not out of the political campaign manual.
You did the opposite.
And that’s what should be conveyed.
PETE: Well, the problem is, to really work emotionally,
I can’t be delivering lines, right?
LIS: Right. If you guys can leave us
so we can work on some feedback and all that.
-Good job, guys. -(clapping)
(speaks indistinctly)
We thought his race answers weren’t great.
He sounded a bit defensive, and I think the emotive piece,
I think, in that answer was missing.
-Totally missing. -It was very clinical.
Yeah. He needs to show more...
And, honestly, that’s the feedback I would give him here,
is just that he’s got to... he’s running for president,
and-and when he goes up there, he’s got to show more life,
more conviction, ’cause he’s coming across
like the fucking Tin Man up there.
PETE: The challenge always, when you’re working with consultants,
is to take good advice and still be yourself.
You know, one of the things they say I’ve got
going for me is authenticity, right?
So the last thing I want to do is do or say
something that’s not me in order to satisfy
some desire for me to be more emotional.
LIS: One minute for your closing statement.
PETE: And the weird thing is
it was always framed as, like, "Let loose, be yourself,"
but to do that would not be myself.
Or at least not be real or authentic.
PETE: Morning. How you doing?
-Excellent. Yourself? -Good.
-(bell chimes) -(elevator doors squeak open)
Okay. What’s the spin room plan?
LIS: I... It’s not to do it.
But it’d make sense for me to be there, right?
-No, ’cause... -(elevator bangs)
-Oh. -MAN: We may not have an option.
-(man laughs) -LIS: Oh, God.
-(alarm buzzing) -MIKE: No way.
-(Pete laughing) -Oh, shit.
The sign did say, uh...
-MAN: There we go. -LIS: Okay.
-...five at a time. -(line ringing)
MAN: Oh, did it really?
(indistinct chatter over speaker)
MIKE: Yeah, can you hear me?
LIS: We are... we are literally not moving.
Like, it is... it is falling down.
-It’s not falling down. -No, we’re just...
-LIS: No, it’s not. It’s... -Just kind of broken.
-LIS: It’s jerking. -MAN: You okay?
-It’s not working. -LIS: Yeah, I’m good. I’m just...
I’m just getting my center of gravity here
so when it goes down I’m... I’m good.
(chime, indistinct chatter over speaker)
WOMAN: We’re in the elevator.
I can’t tell you what floor we’re on because...
-LIS: 19. -...it’s not registering where we’re at.
(Muzak playing)
-MIKE: Oh, Jesus. -WOMAN: Wow.
This is, like, the... the one time I’ve ever been stuck
in an elevator is this moment-- it’s right before the...
-MIKE: Jesus. Mayor Pete. -MAN: He’s not nervous.
-He was in a fucking war zone. -LIS: I know. Exactly.
MAN: The rest of us are shitting in our pants.
LIS: I know, I know.
WOMAN: Lis is having a mental breakdown.
LIS: Judith, I was just going through, like, the headlines of:
"Mayor Pete, others die in tragic elevator accident."
-(laughter) -(bell chimes)
-WOMAN: Let’s just... -MIKE: Can we get out?
Yeah, let’s get out. We’re going.
(indistinct chatter)
-Go ahead. -Captain is the last one out.
Ah, there you go.
RACHEL MADDOW: We are going to begin this hour,
uh, with Mayor Buttigieg.
Your community of South Bend, Indiana,
has recently been in uproar over an officer-involved shooting.
The police force in South Bend is now six percent Black
in a city that is 26% Black.
Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?
Because I couldn’t get it done.
My community is in anguish right now
because of an officer-involved shooting,
a Black man, Eric Logan, killed by a white officer.
And I could walk you through all of the things that we have done,
but it didn’t save the life of Eric Logan.
And when I look into his mother’s eyes,
I have to face the fact that nothing that I say
will bring him back.
ANDERSON COOPER: Interesting answer.
-Amazing. Yeah. -Uh, he wasn’t deflecting it.
He said he didn’t get it done.
I was critical of him after this town hall meeting
in South Bend last weekend
because I felt it was good that he met with the community,
but he seemed very stoic in that meeting.
And Pete Buttigieg is not a person who emotes.
He’s not that kind of personality,
but what he did tonight in that answer was what I was missing.
I think that was an important... an important moment for him.
PETE: Obviously, you’re rewarded for making good television,
so I get what they’re saying.
Like, it’s important to connect at an emotional level
and not be in your head too much.
Um...
I think in my... you know, my approach
to a lot of these things is to think them through.
You know, and my way of coming at the world...
...the stronger an emotion is, the more private it is.
And it is a strange thing, because politics is
an emotional pursuit, of course.
CHASTEN: Um, you present as a very calm person.
-PETE: I am a very calm person. -(Chasten chuckles)
-Do you always feel that way? -No, of course not.
(laughs) Um...
I can’t speak for other people, but I think...
one way you become calm is if you have
a very intense emotional life
and you learn at an early age how to master that.
You’ve got to learn to balance all that
and take it on board and not let it throw you.
(applause)
PETE: Thanks to everyone who is part of Victory,
to advance the cause of equality in our country
through LGBTQ representation in our national political life.
My name is Pete Buttigieg.
For understandable reasons, better known as Mayor Pete.
(laughter)
And lately, I think still better known
as the husband of Chasten Buttigieg.
(cheering)
I got a lot of questions about why I came out when I did,
whether it was designed to serve some purpose.
In fact, it was designed to serve a very simple
and private purpose, which was:
I wanted to started dating.
(laughter)
When I turned 33, I was a grown man
with absolutely no idea what it was like to be in love.
And I wasn’t sure how to get started, either.
So I did what people my age do:
-use the Internet. -(light laughter)
It’s a really happy story,
but there’s another part of the story that, frankly,
even now I have a harder time talking about.
And it’s the fact that when I was younger,
I would have done anything to not be gay.
When I began to halfway realize what it meant
that I felt the way I did about people I saw
in the hallway at school or the dining hall in college,
it launched in me
something I can only describe as a kind of war.
And if that war had been settled
on the terms that I would have wished for
when I was 15 or 20 or frankly even 25,
I would not be standing here.
If you had offered me a pill to make me straight,
I would’ve swallowed it before you had time
to give me a sip of water.
It’s hard to face the truth that there were times in my life
when if you had shown me exactly
what it was inside me that made me gay,
I would have cut it out with a knife.
Thank God there was no pill.
Thank God there was no knife.
(cheering, applause)
-The speech was good. -You think?
Do you like using the whole, like,
"I wish I wasn’t gay" thing?
I just feel like I have to be honest about it.
-Um, I know it’s not... -I understand it.
It’s just, like, a struggle that everyone goes through.
I mean, most people go through when they’re coming out.
And I appreciate that aspect of it, but you’re talking about
really dark stuff there and you’re sort of alluding to...
Are you alluding to, like, you wanted to commit suicide?
-Or you contemplated...? -No.
’Cause it kind of comes off that way, like,
-"I would’ve harmed myself," -Yeah. Yeah.
and you don’t really draw a line of, like, where you were...
which is powerful,
but then you have to be really clear about it.
Yeah.
But, I mean, lots of aahs and oohs.
-Yeah. -So people liked it.
Yeah. (sniffles)
CHASTEN: Very early on in our relationship, I would say,
like, "What’s going on in that head of yours?"
And he’s grown a lot, being able to... to verbalize.
And I think he’s-- one--
learned to allow personal narrative to have more impact.
Um, in a stump speech or in policy,
as well as in our relationship.
Um, opening up, talking about who he met
and what that means to him and, um...
and also, like, the weight that comes
with thousands of people putting their...
putting their weight on you.
♪ ♪
PETE: We’re in a position right now to make history,
and a lot of that history is going to be made
in communities like right here.
It’s gonna be made in Iowa, for sure.
That’s where we’re gonna turn heads around the country
and demonstrate what’s possible.
This is a season to lift each other up
and to make things happen.
That’s what this is about.
Running for office is an act of hope.
This is the phase where we’re getting out there,
and for us, it’s Iowa or bust.
EMCEE: Welcome, Mayor Pete!
(cheering)
PETE: We’re trying to build an account of politics
where our progressive beliefs about identity and welcome
align rather than contradict.
It’s been kind of a tough road, you know...
PETE: When I talked about coming out, that wasn’t just
a story for, you know, gay people to hear.
That was everybody who’s tried
to figure out how to be who they are.
You know, some people call campaigning,
uh, an MRI of the soul.
It turned out that this meant
all kinds of different things to different people.
Oh, my God! (laughs)
(indistinct chanting)
PETE: Partly because...
my story could kind of authenticate
why belonging was so important to me.
But part of it is because everybody’s lived that.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for coming. Who’s behind the sign?
CHASTEN: It’s about reaching out to people you don’t know
-and making them feel like they belong. -Hi.
That is why it was so easy for me
to leave the classroom and join Pete on the trail.
We are more than our identity, and that is a...
a part of us, but it does not define us.
He’s not running to be the gay president of the United States,
and he’s not running to be president of gay America.
He’s running to be president of all of America, um...
The best thing that I can do, I think, is to
-make people feel hopeful... -(laughter)
and give people permission to be happy again
and hopeful again and inspired.
-Thanks for coming. -Thanks for everything.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
You guys give me faith in humanity.
-Good. Good, that’s the goal. -Seriously.
I tell you, it’s the spouse that keeps the movement going.
Oh, that is true, is it not?
PETE: For all the, like, razzle-dazzle
and the gamification of it in the media,
politics makes you connected to somebody
totally different from you,
and that’s real and it’s beautiful.
-Hi. -Hello. How are you?
-I’m good. -Thanks for coming over to see me.
-I appreciate it. -Hey, no problem.
You’re a huge inspiration to me...
-Thank you. -...to just be myself.
I have autism, and for a long time,
I tried to hide it away ’cause I was so ashamed, and...
this year, I’ve decided,
"You know what? No, no more hiding.
-I’m just gonna be myself." -Good. Good.
And you have been a huge inspiration to me
-of just being yourself. -It means a lot to hear that.
And you have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m proud of you.
-Thank you so much. -And I love your shirt.
-Can I ask you a question? -Thank you so much.
-Thanks for coming. -I love your message of hope.
-Can I ask you a question? -Thank you. Real quick. Quick.
I’m my brother’s guardian to his kids.
He died of an overdose. Is there information on your plan for...
PETE: Yes, uh, yes, check it out.
Uh, if you go to PeteForAmerica.com,
we got a plan on mental health and addiction that, uh,
talks about... talks about what people are
self-medicating for in the first place,
as well as what we need to do
-to support people, so... -Thank you.
And, uh, thanks for sharing your story.
(crying): Thank you.
PETE: Help is on the way.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
♪ ♪
CROWD: Buttigieg! Buttigieg!
-Buttigieg! Buttigieg! -MAN: Win with Warren!
-Buttigieg! Buttigieg! -Win with Warren!
-Buttigieg! -Win with Warren!
-(whoops) -MAN 2: When I say, "President,"
you say, "Biden."
-President! President! -CROWD: Biden! Biden!
-President! -Biden!
(overlapping, competing chants)
(marching band playing upbeat music)
(cheering)
-What was that? -Is Chasten here?
-Uh, he’s in Des Moines. -Okay.
Wait, uh, we’re in Des Moines.
-(laughs) -I last saw him in Des Moines.
REPORTER: What’s the key to getting
traction here in this key state?
Well, a lot of it is
good old-fashioned retail politics.
We’re doing the policy releases,
we’re doing the national conversation,
but the people here want to get to know you.
They want to know what you’re about.
It’s a critical part to winning Iowa,
and Iowa is critical to winning the nomination.
All right, thanks, everybody.
REPORTER 2: David Axelrod commented about
your crowd being mostly white.
What do you need to do to reach out
to the African American community?
Uh, well, he was right to point out how important
it is for us to build a diverse coalition.
Uh, obviously, uh, states like South Carolina and Nevada
are more racially diverse
than states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Uh, and so those create a great opportunity for us to reach out.
Here we go.
REPORTER 3: How do you demonstrate to people here
that you could be the guy?
Uh, well, we’ve, uh, vaulted ahead
of about 20 of my competitors.
Now we just got to get to the top of the heap.
I was the first chance to really prove
that you can build a campaign organization...
Ooh, that is hot.
-How’m I doing? How’s my technique? -(cheering)
...to where everybody has to
submit themselves to the same experience.
Think I might’ve fried my eyebrows.
Whether you’re the former Vice President of the United States
or just some person who decided you’re gonna run for president.
Is it Biden... Biden, then me?
-Biden, then you. -Okay.
LIS: Oh, look here. There’s Andrew Yang.
-PETE: Thanks. -LIS: What’s up, man?
(indistinct chanting in distance)
MAN: Watch your step, sir.
Hey.
PETE: How do you think Cory’s
fundraising maneuver is going over?
It’s not going well.
The thinning out is happening.
-(laughing) -(Lis speaking indistinctly)
-What’s going on? -How are you, man?
How are you? Good.
She’s like, "Here he comes. Watch out. Be careful."
-Yeah, that’s her job. -Be careful.
She’s got, uh, situational awareness.
Nice job with the gaggle out there. That was good.
-Oh, man. Those guys are something else. -What a bastard.
-Just unbelievable. -He’s something else, isn’t he?
It’s unbelievable.
If this is any indication, I think we’re, uh,
pretty strong as a party, so... we’ll get the job done.
-I’ll see you, pal. -Good seeing you, sir.
How was Biden?
-Oh, such a good guy. -Yeah.
Just a great guy.
-CROWD: Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! -PETE: Thank you.
("Pete" chant continues)
PETE: Politics for me is about our everyday lives.
It’s ’cause all the decisions they make
in those big white buildings in Washington
flow into our living rooms and our marriages.
And I know that because I’ve lived it.
People in my life have been saved by Obamacare...
(Pete clears throat)
CHASTEN: My grandma liked this game.
Seven.
ANNE: Pete’s like a poker player.
He tries to psych you out.
-SHERRI: Is he your new friend? -Ah!
A hexagon thing.
TERRY: Peter-- 380.
Anne’s at 218.
-Chasten is 168. -(light laughter)
It’s not about winning.
-ANNE: Yes, it is. -TERRY: For you, it isn’t.
ANNE (laughing): Yes, it is.
(dogs snarling playfully)
(barking)
CHASTEN: How do you deal with the impact on our relationship?
Wow. Um...
well, it’s something we deal with together.
Um...
I think making sure we’re on the road together has helped a lot,
even if we aren’t really spending
quality time together except at
the very beginning or very end of the day.
(TV playing indistinctly)
CHASTEN: Before we... before we jumped
into the project, we almost had kids.
Yeah. Can you imagine?
Imagine if we were like f-five months into having a kid?
CHASTEN: Yeah.
CHASTEN: I think about our future kid-- or kids-- a lot.
’Cause...
what we’re doing right now is for them.
PETE: It’s weird-- I think about parenting
almost completely by...
through you.
Like, I just think about what you will be like as a dad.
Not that I’m-I’m not excited for the kid, but, like...
-(dog barking) -...my mental image of it is about you.
-Buddy. -(barking stops)
♪ ♪
WOMAN: You know you need one, right?
-(laughing) -PETE: Oh, one of these?
Are one of these available?
(laughter)
WOMAN: Lis talked to me about it, and she felt like,
because the mayor wasn’t really talking about it yet,
it was, like, making news and felt...
she felt like it was a little intimate for this early.
I can push back on her if you feel like
-it’s important to bring up. -It’s a very real thing.
Like, it’s very hard for gay families to have children,
so being honest, like, "Yeah, we were trying to be dads
and it didn’t work out," is, like, something very real
and felt by a lot of people.
I mean, it’s like, having children is very difficult,
and I don’t think we’re, like,
gonna pretend that we’re not thinking about having children.
Obviously, like, we’re not planning on having children now.
Right. All this is to say, like,
if you want to... if you want to make it a part of
-the narrative, then we can... -Okay. All right. Let’s move on.
...we can have that conversation,
but do you get what I’m saying?
Yeah, I want to prepare for other things.
-Yeah, yeah. -Um...
(horns honking)
Remember Sodom and Gomorrah.
Pete Butti-lidge is an enemy of children
and an enemy of marriage.
Schoolteachers all over America are telling their children,
"Oh, what a great example Mayor Pete is.
"You could grow up and be like him.
Go ahead and experiment with your sexuality."
They can become addicted to sexual perversion and...
...then end up trapped
in a lifestyle that could cost them their soul.
(whip cracking)
Every vote for Pete Butti-lidge is like a...
a lash on the back of Christ.
Is it hurting?
Well, just a little lighter.
-You’re killing me, man. -(laughter)
(bell tolling)
PETE: I’m running for president
because I believe we’re at a moment
that is really redefining the social, economic, political,
perhaps moral life of our nation.
This is a watershed period as big as the one
that gave rise to the New Deal or the one that gave rise
to what you might call the Reagan Moment that...
that I would argue we’ve been living in for my entire life.
And I think what’s coming next
could be very enlightened or it could be very ugly.
I’m also trying to make the case for something of
a renewed level of attention to a religious left.
MAN: The next President of the United States has to be able
to bring the conversation back to a place
where people can talk to each other when they disagree
and when they feel strongly
that what they have to say comes from God.
When faith has been brought to the national conversation,
it’s been used as a weapon.
And it’s also done a disservice to the public conversation.
PETE: Yeah.
Politics at its highest unites people
of different, uh, values
or different experiences into one body.
I mean, that’s what a nation can be,
right, in-in its richest sense.
Especially because the American nation is not ethnic.
It’s-it’s civic. Yeah.
You’ve been asked a few questions about white privilege,
um, and to what extent race plays
in the country and, by extension, the race
-and, by extension, your candidacy. -Yeah.
Um, I can’t say that I’ve been happy with your answers.
My real question is this:
If the country is really in this moment, this watershed moment,
and we’re in the mood for change,
why should we give a white man a 45th opportunity at changing,
uh, what has already been jacked up by 45 white men?
I guess I’m asking to be judged on more than my race.
Um, I cannot express regret for my race being what it is
any more than I can express regret
for my sexuality being what it is.
I can express regret for the fact
that I benefit from a system that treats people of my race
differently than others.
And part of what I’m trying to do is
engage in the kind of dialogue and receptivity
to figuring out how I can, um,
better tune my heart to what is needed.
And anything that I can change and ought to about myself
through broadening, through listening, through encounter--
uh, through prayer, even-- I will seek to do.
Um, any quality about me that is fixed is what it is.
Sure.
If he really believes that-- like, really believes that--
then my question still stands,
and the answer, "I hope you don’t
take my race into consideration,"
-is a bullshit answer. -WOMAN: Yeah. That’s...
-Because race exists. -Yeah.
It exists. It’s here.
The-the reason why he’s here is because race exists.
The reason why he went and met with Al Sharpton
-is because race exists. -Yeah.
Because he’s running fourth,
but only four percent of his polling is nonwhite.
-Yeah. -So let’s not... so don’t feed me
"I want... I don’t want to be, um,
judged upon my race" as if...
as if we’re in that magical unicorn world.
-Yeah. Yeah. -We’re not.
WOMAN: But only privileged people
can actually make that claim or comment.
That is actually the point.
PETE: I think a white candidate,
especially a new white candidate,
just has a lot to deliver.
I need to try to find ways of connecting
to very different experiences.
And at the same time,
you know, that can put a lot of pressure on your authenticity
if you’re trying to look to-to...
bridge two very different experiences
when-when the most important thing you can do
is just acknowledge why they’re different.
And I think it took me a long time to understand that part,
that it wasn’t about:
How do I take these combinations
of-of privilege and exclusion that I know
and use ’em to make me see yours better?
And it’s more:
How do I understand where I fit and acknowledge it,
and then hear you telling me
where you fit and acknowledge it,
and then offer a convincing account
of how I can deliver for you?
People like you and people like me both.
-How are you? -Good. How are you?
Ready?
CHASTEN: How do you feel about this conversation? Like...
-PETE: Yeah. -You’re not a minority, but...
Like we were talking about earlier,
less than 30 years ago,
gay people were dying in the thousands,
and, you know, we’re still strung up in countries
for being who we are, fired for being who we are.
-Yeah. -Obviously, being gay is
a minority in this country.
How does it feel when people write about it
in a way that says, like, but it’s not?
-Yeah. -That you’re just...
you’re just a white male and you don’t know.
Yeah, I think people are trying
to figure out what to do with all of it.
I think it bothers you more than it does me for some reason.
Frankly, maybe ’cause just, like, you’ve dealt with
more bullshit because of being gay than I have.
LIS: Okay. Let’s get started.
Mayor Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar last week
said that a woman of your age and your experience level
would not be standing on this stage today.
Do you believe that you benefit from white male privilege?
PETE: I think the senator is right
to point to the effects of sexism
and what that does in our politics.
Every one of us has battled
different advantages and disadvantages to get here.
I’m standing before you as somebody who,
just two elections ago,
would not even be able legally to wear this wedding ring.
Somebody who entered the military at a time
when it was a matter of law that I could be fired
from that job just because of who I am.
And here I am standing in front of you as evidence
of what can happen when America does the right thing.
Okay, wait. Hold on, Pete.
There’s never been an openly gay person on that stage before,
and you were going through all of these things
like you were reading a fucking, like, shopping list.
If we don’t feel it in this room,
no one over their TV screen is gonna feel it.
So, like, you need to fucking feel this in you.
And I think you’ve got to acknowledge, like,
you will never understand what it’s like to be a-a Black woman
but, like, you understand a thing or two about obstacles
that have been thrown in your way.
You’re not, like, fucking an anthropologist here.
This is, like, a thing that you feel.
I think you can just be really-- "Let me tell you about
-my experience." -LIS: Yeah.
Hmm.
CHASTEN: Pete keeps a lot inside.
But I’ve never met someone who thinks
so deeply about his place in the world
and what he can do for other people.
And he just doesn’t show it
the same way other people do sometimes.
And to watch him carry that weight--
like, the weight of injustice
and the weight of...
hurt and division...
...and then people write articles that say, like,
he doesn’t... he doesn’t show emotion.
Or, like, does he... does he care?
PETE (whispering): Whether you live in a small town,
midsize city or one of our biggest...
CHASTEN: But the ways I’ve seen him grow,
just talking about that weight out loud...
...means a lot to me.
PETE: So, there’s this poem by Carl Sandburg
that’s from the perspective of a father giving advice to his son.
And it says to "tell him to be alone often and get at himself"
and "tell himself no lies about himself
"whatever white lies and protective fronts
he may use among other people."
And... of course, for anybody who’s ever come out,
like, that makes you think.
But everybody has thought about that.
What’s the difference between the faces
the world makes you put forward
and your shifting understanding of who you actually are?
"Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms."
(cheering and applause)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mayor Buttigieg,
what’s the most significant
professional setback you’ve had to face,
and what did you learn from it?
You know, as a military officer
serving under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,
and as an elected official in the state of Indiana
when Mike Pence was governor,
at a certain point, when it came to professional setbacks,
I had to wonder whether just acknowledging who I was
was gonna be the ultimate
career-ending professional setback.
(clears throat) I came back from the deployment
and realized that you only get to live one life,
and I was not interested in not knowing what it was like
to be in love any longer, so I just came out.
I had no idea what kind of professional setback
it would be, especially ’cause, inconveniently,
it was an election year in my socially conservative community.
What happened was that when I trusted voters
to judge me based on the job that I did for them,
they decided to trust me
and reelected me with 80% of the vote.
And what I learned was that trust can be reciprocated
and that part of how you can win and deserve to win
is to know what’s worth more to you than winning.
And I think that’s what we need in the presidency right now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Mayor Buttigieg, thank you.
Mr. Yang...
LIS: That was insane.
How good did you... how good did you feel at that second?
PETE: Pretty good. Oh, yeah...
MIKE: When you’re at this level, I think people want
to see that you can be commander in chief.
PETE (on TV): You’re being offered a false choice.
I don’t agree with the vice president
that Trump is an aberration.
MIKE: And that you can be decent
and articulate and eloquent, but that at the same time
you can also be commanding and you can be forceful
and that you can make decisions
and that you can talk about your convictions
and that you can draw contrasts from other people.
And the debates showed that.
PETE: I don’t need lessons from you
on courage, political or personal.
Everyone on this stage is determined
to get something done.
The problem is the National Rifle Association
and their enablers in Congress,
and we should be united in taking the fight to them.
Respectfully, Congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong.
The slaughter going on in Syria is not
a consequence of American presence.
It’s a consequence of a withdrawal
and a betrayal by this president
of American allies and American values.
You’ve memorized a bunch of talking points.
You have not been in the arena doing that work.
PETE: Well, maybe leading a diverse city
that was facing ruin doesn’t sound like the arena to you.
I-I’m used to senators telling mayors
that senators are more important than mayors,
but this is the arena, too.
You don’t have to be in Washington to matter.
They wouldn’t be attacking you if they didn’t fear you,
if they didn’t think that you presented a threat to them.
WARREN: The mayor just recently had a fundraiser
that was held in a wine cave full of crystals.
Billionaires in wine caves.
According to Forbes magazine, I am the...
literally the only person on this stage
who’s not a millionaire or a billionaire.
If I pledge never to be
in the company of a progressive Democratic donor,
I couldn’t be up here.
We need the support from everybody
who is committed to helping us defeat Donald Trump.
MIKE: There’s definitely been a progression
in terms of his presence
that’s needed to be successful and win.
PETE: We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate
who wants to burn this party down
and another candidate who wants to buy this party out.
Let’s put forward somebody who’s actually a Democrat.
See, that was a performance. That was a performance.
Let’s do this.
MIKE: There’s more of, like,
kind of a stature, a presence around him now.
I think it’s just, when you’re at this level
and there’s the media attention and the events are really big,
there’s, like, a star power that kind of comes with that.
PETE: Thank you.
(Pete speaking French)
("High Hopes" by Panic! At the Disco playing)
(cheering)
(song fades)
(cheering)
We will fight when we must fight,
but I will never allow us to get so wrapped up in the fighting
that we start to think fighting is the point.
The point is what lies on the other side of the fight.
I have seen what America can do, and so have you.
After all, you’re looking at someone
who, as a young man growing up,
wondered if something deep inside of him
meant that he would forever be an outsider,
would never wear the uniform,
never be accepted, never know love.
And now you are looking at that same young man--
a veteran, a mayor, happily married--
asking for your vote for president of the United States.
(cheering)
♪ ♪
(news theme playing)
LESTER HOLT: Good evening. I’m Lester Holt in New York.
Doors have just closed at caucus sites in Iowa,
and after months of campaigning,
actual voting is finally underway.
Just 41 delegates at stake tonight.
It’s a fraction of what’s needed
to win the Democratic nomination.
But what’s really on the line for the candidates tonight
is the enormous boost that comes from winning
this first-in-the-nation contest.
Senator Bernie Sanders carried it big in 2016...
PETE: Iowa winnows it down.
’Cause they talk about the three tickets out of Iowa:
to win outright, to come in close
or to beat expectations.
Iowa basically decides who’s still a candidate
as you go into New Hampshire and Nevada
and South Carolina and the rest of it.
HOLT: Some numbers have started to come in,
but this race is still too early for us to call,
with Biden, Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg
all vying for first place.
Chuck Todd, he is in Iowa...
PETE: 20% win probability.
No votes counted.
Right now what we’re doing is we’re getting official counts
from each different preferential group, finding out, uh,
one vote for Gabbard, one vote for Deval Patrick,
three votes for Cory Booker, et cetera.
...process that the party is undertaking right now.
Because this is far later...
They did not expect to have no vote reporting
at 10:30 Eastern...
WOLF BLITZER: ...what they described as multiple reports
of technical trouble.
Are numbers gonna start getting reported in, then,
as, like, precinct by precinct?
MAN (on phone): Oh, I’m not going into
those specifics, uh, right now.
Oh, my fucking...
God.
I think you should get out there.
They’re gonna talk about Klobuchar now
for another 45 minutes or hour until the next person goes.
It’s so political to go in and give that speech.
And we don’t have any real indication
where it’s gonna turn out.
PETE: But what if it’s like,
"We don’t know much, but we know this"?
Like, something’s happening.
Like... or like, look, they’re off crunching the numbers,
and we don’t know everything, but I’ve seen enough
to know that you all have made history tonight.
-Yeah. -I know it’s a little weird
without having anything real behind it,
but there’s a way that we’re not... it’s not to, like,
"bullshit declare victory" thing.
It’s the, like, "somebody might as well
say something before midnight" thing.
-MIKE: Let’s just go. -LIS: Get your suit on.
Tonight, in this enormously consequential
2020 election...
CHASTEN: We’re gonna be the only campaign
that didn’t have the spouse onstage.
-PETE: Hmm? -You’re gonna be the only candidate
that didn’t have your spouse standing next to you.
I think you’re gonna come at the end,
’cause we don’t have the, like, supporters and family on...
There’s, like, a gap between...
Well, you were there for the council.
SANDERS: Let me... let me begin by saying that I imagine...
Yeah, I mean, at the end, but everyone...
like, everyone has had their spouse standing next to them.
SANDERS: ...the results will be announced...
PETE: Amy’s husband was, like, back among the...
-Right, but he was onstage the whole time. -Yeah.
So was Jill.
SANDERS: ...I have a good feeling we’re gonna be doing
-very, very well here in Iowa. -(crowd cheering)
(crowd cheering)
Should I say I shocked the political world
or I rocked the... rocked...
-LIS: Shocked. Shocked. -What about "astonished"?
-"Astonished" is good. -Aston... Let’s do "astonished."
-Yeah, do "astonished." -You don’t like "astonished"?
-I mean, that’s... -"Shocked"?
"Shocked" is bad, isn’t it? "Shocked"?
"Shocked"? No. "Shocked" is good.
(crowd cheering)
PETE: So we don’t know all the results,
but, Iowa, you have shocked the nation.
We are going on to New Hampshire victorious.
(cheering)
♪ My time is not long here ♪
♪ I gotta lay this body down ♪
♪ I got the hounds on my trail ♪
♪ It’s the cross before the crown ♪
♪ We’re gonna die anyway ♪
♪ Let’s make a difference ♪
♪ Mm-hmm... ♪
REPORTER: What’s your reaction, sir,
to Mayor Buttigieg last night declaring victory?
I don’t know how anybody declares victory before you have
an official statement as to election results.
Uh, we thought it was inappropriate.
-♪ Obstacles are in the way... ♪ -(crowd cheering)
I believe the Granite State could make me
the next president of the United States, and if you do,
I will work every day to make you proud
and earn that support.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you for caring.
Please spread the word, and I think we’re gonna have
a lot to celebrate. Thank you!
Thank you.
-♪ Uh-huh... ♪ -Thank you.
♪ I know that we... ♪
-Thank you. -Good luck.
You’ll get ’em with New Hampshire, hands down.
Look, we said so. We feel good. We think so.
Uh, I don’t have a lot of experience winning, uh,
-presidential elections, but... -(laughter)
...um, but this is, I think,
what winning feels like, so with your help...
(cheering)
The Democratic Party of Iowa, if I may say so, screwed up
the, uh, counting process badly.
And I suspect that at the end of the day,
uh, Mr. Buttigieg and I will have an equal number of, um...
of delegates to the National Convention.
WOMAN: Pete, we love you!
♪ Spirits below and above ♪
♪ Show us some guidance and love... ♪
MAN (on phone): They’ve screened 62% of precincts
from all 99 counties
that we get in about ten minutes.
All right, nothing to do but stand by for news, right?
Cool.
God, this makes me so nervous.
PETE: Um...
LIS: Hey, what-what were you saying?
Like, in first?
How do you know that?
Are they making any announcements?
There we go.
-LIS: What is it? -We’re ahead of him.
What?
Whoa, it shows him in first place. Oh, my God.
Go. Hurry.
-Where is he? -In the bathroom.
Tell him, Chasten. Tell him.
Sorry.
-Here? -Yeah, he’s in the bathroom.
You’re in first.
-You’re in first. -PETE: Oh-ho.
-What? -You’re in first.
-Hey. How about that? -LIS: You’re in first.
You’re in first place.
-Oh, my God. -(laughing)
("High Hopes" by Panic! At the Disco playing)
REPORTER: Is it a surprise? Uh, sure.
Bernie Sanders was running before.
-Elizabeth Warren had a really strong summer. -Right.
Biden’s the former two-term vice president of the United States.
So Mayor Buttigieg has pretty good bragging rights...
All right, you practice
for your Iowa caucus win.
We haven’t won yet, but we have.
-Because, by any reckoning... -Oh, geez.
All right. Okay. Goodbye.
...for us to be leading the Iowa caucuses
-is an astonishing victory. -(door closes)
(door opens)
(door closes)
Would you ever say, like,
"And to that kid, you know,
"and you had them cracking the door open,
"wondering if it’s really safe to come out in this country,
I say, ’Look what we can do.’"
I don’t know when. Maybe.
Yeah.
You’re gonna tell every single gay kid in this country today...
...that it gets better.
You just won the Iowa caucus.
You’re gonna be the next president of the United States.
Here’s proof.
EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
the next president of the United States,
Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
(cheering)
("High Hopes" by Panic! At the Disco playing)
PETE: A little later than we anticipated,
but better late than never.
Official, verified caucus results
are coming in from the state of Iowa.
We don’t know all of the numbers, but we know this much:
A campaign that started a year ago
with four staff members,
no name recognition, no money,
a campaign that some said
should have no business even making this attempt
has taken its place at the front of this race
to replace the current president
with a better vision for the future.
(cheering)
It validates the idea that we can expand a coalition
not only unified around who it is we’re against
but around what it is that we’re for.
(person whoops)
And it validates for a kid somewhere in a community
wondering if he belongs
or she belongs or they belong in their own family...
...that if you believe in yourself and your country
there’s a lot backing up that belief.
(cheering and applause)
CROWD: Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete!
Mm.
-I know. I married well. -(laughter)
CROWD: I believe that Pete will win!
I believe that Pete will win!
(news theme playing)
BLITZER (on TV): All right, let’s give another
key race alert right now.
The numbers are coming in fairly quickly.
What a difference a week makes.
Bernie Sanders maintains his lead.
Pete Buttigieg, uh, with 22.6%, Amy Klobuchar 20.8%,
and Joe Biden, he’s down in fifth place-- 8.6%.
-Uh, the remaining candidates... -PETE: Okay. Okay.
Okay, thanks. Um, I think...
LIS: CNN said the numbers are gonna
get better for us if we wait.
Based on our modeling, we would need to overperform
what we’ve been doing all night by about six percent
to catch him.
BLITZER: 26.4% to 23.9%.
-It’s him. -He’s got a lead of 4,764 votes.
Amy Klobuchar in third place with 20%.
Elizabeth Warren, 9.3%.
Joe Biden, 8.5%.
♪ ♪
(thunder crashes)
Is rain a good sign or a... or a bad sign
in Nevada on-on, uh, caucus day?
PETE: I think the clouds are parting, the sun is emerging.
I got to think that’s a good sign.
♪ ♪
LIS: Then only the three of us... Hey, Larry.
So then only the three of us would get delegates
if this held?
-Yes. Yeah. -That’s not good.
This is really a-a worry.
(on TV): All Bernie ever had to do--
and he’s done it beautifully--
is get a majority of that, and he’s up to the mid 30s.
If you get half of 67, you’re into the mid 30s...
PETE: South Carolina, here we come.
(thunder rumbling)
PETE: See this lightning out there?
There’s a lot of storms off to this side.
♪ ♪
(crowd cheering)
(emcee speaking indistinctly in distance)
What are you looking at?
The numbers.
New ones?
I don’t know. I just hit "search."
-Why? -Why what?
You’re getting ready to go onstage.
That’s not what you should be focusing on.
What should I be focusing on?
Doing a really good job onstage.
(indistinct chatter)
CHASTEN: Why are you here?
Because they made me.
No. Peter, why are you here?
To become president of the United States.
But why do you want to be president of the United States?
’Cause of the people.
(muttering)
Look at all the people that are out there waiting for you.
Not for the stump speech, and this is new for them.
Everything you’re gonna say is new to them.
You’re offering them an invitation into this family.
That’s what you’re doing.
(crowd cheering)
Just so you know, um, there is a cow in the audience.
Someone dressed up as a cow.
(laughter)
Do we know whose side the cow is on?
They, um, have a sign saying, "Go vegan or we’ll die."
Okay. (chuckles)
Look, if we’re gonna get anywhere,
we really need to moo...ve people on this issue.
You know what I mean?
And maybe what would be really helpful is
we’ll just get all the candidates, you know,
-for one big cattle call. -Yeah, okay.
Now, look, I’m not gonna come at this issue
-like a bull in a china shop. -Yeah.
-But what I do want to do is... -Thank you.
...steer the conversation...
Shouldn’t he be outside or something?
I’m sorry.
There’s a lot at stake.
(crowd cheering)
("High Hopes" by Panic! At the Disco playing)
WOMAN: Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete!
(cheering)
-REPORTER: One more? -Sounds good.
-Hi, Mayor. Good to see you. -Good to be here.
-Um, you came to South Carolina. -Yeah.
You obviously want to connect with African American voters.
-Yeah. -47% of the population here
in west Charleston is African American.
Where was that crowd this evening?
PETE: Well, I think, uh, you know, what this tells us
is we’ve got a lot of work cut out...
♪ ♪
AXELROD: No one a year ago would’ve thought
-he’d be in the conversation. -WOMAN: Right.
AXELROD: And he’s run an extraordinary campaign,
but he made a bet, and that bet was that
he could do so well in Iowa and New Hampshire
that he’d get escape velocity, essentially,
and he would get a-a look in Nevada
and a look in South Carolina and that he could build on that.
He came awfully close.
If Iowa had announced its results that night...
-(coughs) -You good?
Here are some tissues.
-(Pete coughs) -BLITZER (on TV): ...so significant that,
clearly, this is a big, big boost for Joe Biden.
JEFF ZELENY: But, Wolf, the big questions now
are facing all of these candidates.
What are they going to do?
We do not know the answer to that.
(beeping)
MAN (on phone): All right, so... so then I think
the next big question is on, uh,
outreach to one of the other campaigns,
if that is a route you want to go.
PETE: You know, I continue to feel
a little bit...
maybe not divided, but not a...
not 100% sure on, um, jumping in,
but inclined to initiate
that conversation with the Biden campaign,
and I think we’re-we’re serious enough
about considering it that we should, um, do it.
It does feel like the most party-unifying action
that I can take between now and the convention, right?
-Yeah. -Yes.
Okay. Thank you.
-Thank you. -Night. Thanks, Pete.
-Thanks. -WOMAN (on phone): Thank you.
That’s how you end a presidential campaign.
JESSE: When did you make that decision?
Um, overnight, just before bed,
we did a call and just looked at numbers, and, uh...
it was... pretty clear where we are.
I mean, you could keep pushing, but...
doesn’t seem like...
I mean, it’s just not there.
So... And we have a chance to do some good now.
I mean, if it’s true that...
too many candidates in this race are cluttering it,
there’s two things you can do about that.
One of ’em is win, and the other one’s get out.
("Perfect Day" by Lou Reed playing)
♪ Just a perfect day ♪
♪ Drink sangria in the park... ♪
REPORTER: Pete Buttigieg dropping out, all in the wake
of Joe Biden’s landslide victory in South Carolina on Saturday,
winning by nearly 30 points.
The narrowing field could help the former vice president
as we head into Super Tuesday.
More than a third of the Democratic...
♪ Just a perfect day ♪
♪ Problems all left alone ♪
♪ Weekenders on our own ♪
♪ It’s such fun ♪
♪ Just a perfect day ♪
♪ You made me forget myself ♪
♪ I thought I was someone else ♪
♪ Someone good ♪
♪ Oh, it’s such a perfect day ♪
♪ I’m glad I spent it with you ♪
♪ Oh, such a perfect day ♪
♪ You just keep me hanging on ♪
(cheering)
♪ ♪
♪ You’re going to reap just what you sow... ♪
CHASTEN: Ugh, can’t believe they carried my speech live.
PETE: Of course they did. You’re adorable.
CHASTEN: No, I cried the whole time.
PETE: It was perfect.
♪ ♪
(barking)
Yeah, Truman’s excited.
(song ends)
CHASTEN: Ugh.
Here you go.
(gasps) Where’d you find ’em?
SHERRI: Look at you guys in sweats and slippers.
Feels good. I haven’t been in sweats in a long time.
SHERRI: That’s got to feel really good.
(cell phone buzzing)
Good evening.
BARACK OBAMA: How you doing, man?
(chuckling): I’m okay, Mr. President. How are you?
Well, good. I mean, it’s, uh...
(coughs) Excuse me.
Picked up a bit of a nasty cough on the trail.
It’s, uh, you know, that kind of numb, uh, stage
where, uh, just trying to get used to the prospect of
whatever life is about to be, but, uh...
CHASTEN: Hey, Dr. Biden. How are you?
Well, thank you for... thank you for the call,
and thanks for thinking of me, uh, a-and please tell, uh,
the vice president I say hello as well, uh,
and-and we’ll be wishing you well.
Okay. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
CHASTEN: Oh, doing well, Mr. Vice President.
How are you?
(quietly): It’s Joe Biden.
Pete’s right here. He just hung up his call, but...
Yeah, th-thanks for saying hello,
and I’ll-I’ll pass you off.
All right, take care.
Good evening.
(Biden speaking indistinctly over phone)
Well, thank you.
BIDEN: You have enormous talent,
and all you need... you need is exposure.
PETE: Mm.
(Biden continues indistinctly)
JESSE: Do you think you’ll be president someday?
PETE: I don’t know.
I know that I might be.
And that’s something.
Even now, it’s hard to actually think about.
I only got so far, but...
not a lot of people get that far.
And, um...
if you actually think about the enormity of it, it could...
could break you a little bit.
How so?
Like, there’s only so much room.
When you’re on... when you’re a candidate
and you’re encountering multiple people a day
who can tell you about losing a loved one
because of a policy failure-- on opioids or whatever it is--
or what they went through with long-term care
or unemployment or-or racism or whatever they were facing,
if you actually imbibed all of the consequence of that
in all of its emotional meaning,
with all of the suffering that went with it,
you would break.
It’s only because you find a way to contain it
that you can be useful to people.
I think that’s the real challenge of handling
your emotions on the campaign trail.
A-Any... any one of the stories I heard
could touch off a lifetime of activism around a single issue.
And yet you’re out there trying to take it all in
and then trying to play it all back out
in a way that will help people share your vision
and help you eventually be in a position
to deal with the problems
and do that without it, uh...
you know, tearing you up
to where you don’t recognize who you are.
So, I don’t know what that means for my future
other than I just keep taking things...
taking things on and growing.
But time is on my side, I hope. (chuckles)
("Colors" by Black Pumas playing)
Over the past few weeks,
Vice President-elect Harris and I have been announcing
nominees to our cabinet.
I know how proud presidents are
when they’re able to achieve a first in their cabinet.
The first ever openly gay nominee
to lead a cabinet department,
and one of the youngest cabinet members ever,
please welcome the next secretary of transportation,
-Pete Buttigieg. -(applause)
♪ To the brown, brown, brown, brown ♪
♪ Till I’m clean ♪
♪ With all my favorite colors ♪
♪ Yes, sir ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ Right on ♪
♪ My sisters and my brothers ♪
♪ See ’em like no other ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ It’s a good day to be ♪
♪ A good day for me ♪
♪ A good day to see my favorite colors ♪
♪ Colors ♪
♪ My sisters and my brothers ♪
♪ They see ’em like no other ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ Now take me to the other side ♪
♪ Little bitty blue bird flies ♪
♪ And gray clouds or white walls or blue skies ♪
♪ We gon’ fly, feel all right ♪
♪ And we gon’ ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah ♪
♪ It sound like ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah ♪
♪ The least I can say, I anticipate ♪
♪ A homecoming parade as we renegade in the morning ♪
♪ Right on ♪
♪ With all my favorite colors ♪
♪ Yes, sir ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ Yes, ma’am ♪
♪ My sisters and my brothers ♪
♪ See ’em like no other ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ Right ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ Yes, ma’am ♪
♪ My sisters and my brothers ♪
♪ See ’em like no other ♪
♪ All my favorite colors ♪
♪ It’s a good day to be ♪
♪ A good day for me ♪
♪ A good day to see my favorite colors ♪
♪ Colors ♪
♪ My sisters and my brothers ♪
♪ They see ’em like no other ♪
♪ All my favorite colors. ♪
(song ends)