South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday he's concerned that his fellow Democrats can lose sight of their own goals while battling for the presidential nomination.
"What I'm proposing to do on health care is the biggest thing to happen to health care," the Democratic presidential contender told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" after sparring in the party's fourth presidential debate. "What we are close to being able to do, what we finally have a good strong majority of Americans to do on guns, assault weapons ban, and red flag laws, same thing on immigration, on issue after issue, there's an opportunity to do big things. We've got to make sure we don't in our haste to one-up each other on a debate stage go further and further out to where we do lose people."
However, the race isn't a matter of winning, but of governing, as the next president will need to spend his first day picking up the pieces left behind by President Donald Trump's era, said Buttigieg.
"Democrats have this tendency to be in this defensive crouch and assume people aren't with us on the issues we hold dear," he said. "People are with us at least if we keep our focus on the main things we can achieve."
Buttigieg has had difficulty in the polls among black voters, and he said he has a comprehensive plan that will tackle several issues, including empowering black entrepreneurs, making sure the government is doing a better job dealing with businesses, and addressing social issues such as criminal justice reform.
"What I find is that when I speak about these things, they are resonating strongly with black audiences, but I've got a lot of work to do to go out there and sell it," said Buttigieg.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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