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South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg got a really big boost to his campaign recently, announcing a staggering $24.8 million fundraising haul over the past three months. But that hasn't changed one of the toughest realities his candidacy faces: support among black voters that barely registers in the polls. Countering skeptics who doubt he can win crucial African American voters in the 2020 Democratic primary, Buttigieg rolled out the details of his plan to combat systemic racial inequality, named for legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, on NPR's Morning Edition. "If you're a white candidate, it is twice as important for you...

Democrats’ “dream ticket” would have Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in the top slot and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as her running mate. That’s according to former San Francisco mayor and California State Assembly speaker Willie Brown, who is widely respected as a political pundit with inside into internal Democratic Party politics. *** Brown went on to add that Harris would be good enough at debating to throw Trump off his game, and Buttigieg is “level-headed and likable” enough to provide a contrast to the president. Buttigieg currently leads in the money stakes, having raised over $24 million in...

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — Presidential hopeful and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — who has made history as the first openly gay presidential candidate — hosted a town hall-style meeting and attended a private fundraiser in Provincetown, Mass., known as one of the gayest ZIP codes in America. And the importance of the moment was not lost on the many LGBTQ fans who showed up to give him a hero’s welcome. “In my lifetime — as someone in his 50s who came out at 18 — I never thought I’d see a viable, openly gay presidential candidate,” Jay Coburn, who...

A scenario unfolded last week that has become boringly predictable. Bad guy does bad things. Good guy with authority shows up to stop him. Bad guy attacks good guy with weapon. Good guy shoots bad guy. Bad guy’s “community” allege good guy is racist. Craven politician holds town hall meeting. Craven politician gets shouted down by angry mob. Craven politician folds like wet paper to angry mob’s demands. Craven politician appoints special prosecutor to investigate good guy, who determines good guy was justified in shooting the bad guy. Angry mob insists the “system” is rigged against them. Bad guy’s kindergarten...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” 2020 presidential candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) criticized President Trump’s plans for July 4th celebrations by stating that the event the president has planned “makes America look smaller.” Buttigieg said, “I think it makes America look smaller. One of the reasons I joined the military was that, in a small way, I wanted to be part of seeing to it that my country was not the kind of place where a leader feels the need to boost his own ego by rolling tanks down the streets of our capital. We’ve always...

Democratic presidential candidate says the holiday should not be about Trump’s ego. President Donald Trump’s plans for a grand military parade on the Fourth of July make America “look smaller,” Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday. “Think about the strongest, toughest person you know. It’s probably not a person who goes around talking about how strong or tough they are,” the Democratic presidential candidate told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview. “I think the president’s trying to honor himself, and, again, my worry is it ultimately makes us look smaller,” he said. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a military...

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg hauled in a whopping $24.8 million in fundraising from nearly 300,000 donors the past three months, his campaign announced on Monday. That’s a massive figure for a White House hopeful who was largely unknown just four months ago. And it’s more confirmation – along with polls – that South Bend, Indiana mayor has gone from a long-shot to top-tier contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. “This fundraising report shows that Pete’s message is resonating with Americans, and it’s proof that we are building an organization that can compete,” Buttigieg campaign manager Mike Schmuhl wrote in...

Six shootings occurred the weekend of his town hall. In one instance, a witness reported that the shooter was aiming specifically at police. "To start with trying to heal, the mayor just needs to resign," activist and pastor Mario Sims told the Washington Free Beacon, adding that Buttigieg should demote Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski to cleanse the department of bad blood. Sims also added that he believes Buttigieg is racially "tone-deaf" and should consider retiring from politics until he has "spent some time evaluating this." "I understand political ambition, I understand that," Sims said. "But you're playing games with the...

If you ask me to pick a winner at the Democratic debate on night two in Miami, I would have said Pete Buttigieg.  He came off as reasonable, clear-thinking, pithy, and pleasant.  He respected time limits.  I didn't agree with him on anything, but he gave a sense of coming from rational grounding.  Maybe his leftie ideas could be tempered with real-world realities.  Maybe he could be persuaded... But then, then, then, then...he couldn't stop himself.  The transcript: We have to talk about one other thing, the Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion. Now, our party doesn't talk about that as much, largely for...

Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 33 has a sculpture of two 20-foot wrenches emerging from the mud out by its pocked parking lot in Des Moines, Iowa. Inside, a public bathroom features a shower adorned with gone-gray towels and multiple containers of industrial-strength body wash, presumably for cleaning up after some kind of toxic toilet encounter. It is all very manly. *** The crowd goes wild! OK, maybe NPR singles-night wild. Still, there is light in their eyes as they contemplate replacing our porn-star-banging, syntax-mangling president with a 37-year-old gay Rhodes scholar/Afghanistan veteran who likes to install Wi-Fi sensors in...

A South Bend, Indiana police union on Monday criticized Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s (D) handling of a recent police shooting in the city, saying his focus is predicated “solely for his political gain.” Last week, Buttigieg was forced to temporarily leave his 2020 presidential campaign trail to hold what was a tense town hall with the South Bend police chief Scott Ruszkowski after an officer fatally shot Eric Logan, a 54-year-old African-American man who was allegedly breaking into vehicles with a knife. In a blistering letter shared to Facebook, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #36 stated Buttigeieg’s response to the...

South Bend’s police union accuses Mayor Pete Buttigieg of playing politics with the shooting of Eric Logan and “driving a wedge” between officers and residents. In a release late Monday, the South Bend Fraternal Order of Police said it supports Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, the officer who fatally shot Logan in the parking lot of Central High Apartments on June 16. Police have said Logan was breaking into cars and approached O’Neill with a knife. The statement says the actions of Buttigieg, who is running for president, have been divisive and “solely for his political gain and not for the health...

FULL TITLE: Geraldo Rivera and Juan Williams say Mayor Pete Buttigieg's 2020 dreams may be dashed after town hall controversy Does Mayor Pete Buttigieg still have a chance at winning the Democratic presidential nomination or are those dreams dashed in the wake of his controversial town hall this weekend? On Monday, Fox News' Geraldo Rivera and Juan Williams discussed Buttigieg's handling of the town hall and his cities unhappiness regarding race relations and the police department. "The black one-third of South Bend has apparently turned against the mayor. He's had an incredible run, Mayor Pete has, but I think that...

Mayor Pete Buttigieg shows that he lacks the qualities necessary for the White House. Black Lives Matter activists are upset over his apathy.

Joy Behar kicked it off by saying Buttigieg should “fix what’s going on in South Bend” before trying to win the White House. “Do your job first there, and then run for president,” Behar said. Sonny Hostin, who went to college in South Bend, noted that Buttigieg “has a problem with the African-American community in South Bend which is 30% of the community. That’s significant.” After a commercial break, Whoopi Goldberg chimed in, saying Buttigieg’s response to protesters revealed that he was “more than a little green around the edges.” And in case there was any confusion on how the...

A few weeks ago, a prominent black leader posed what seemed like a simple question to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg during a private meeting: Who in the African-American community back home supports you? “He didn’t name anybody,” the leader said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “If he’s got young black supporters, they do have names.” That leader, who requested anonymity to speak openly about a private meeting, was not only referring to young supporters but expressing a sentiment that was apparent in talks with several African-American lawmakers: that Buttigieg’s interactions with the black community in recent weeks...

A town hall featuring South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg devolved into chaos Sunday as the city struggled to respond to a deadly police-involved shooting last week. In his opening remarks, the 37-year-old Buttigieg, a Democrat and candidate for president, said he would send a letter to the Justice Department requesting that its civil rights division look into the June 16 shooting of 54-year-old Eric Logan, who was black. The mayor added that he would notify the local prosecutor that he'd like an independent investigator appointed.

SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Sunday faced growing fallout over a fatal police shooting in South Bend, an incident that has exposed simmering racial tensions in the Indiana city where he is mayor and which is complicating his presidential ambitions. Buttigieg answered questions at a frequently raucous and angry meeting with South Bend residents in which he was heckled, booed and screamed at by a minority of audience members. He admitted efforts to make the city's police force more diverse had failed, "and I take responsibility for that." Buttigieg appeared a week after the...

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was confronted by a group of protesters in his own hometown Friday following the fatal police shooting of a black man by South Bend police early Sunday morning. Police Sgt. Ryan O’Neill claimed he fired his weapon when Eric Logan, 54, approached him with a knife and refused to drop it after being confronted vandalizing a car parked at an apartment complex. Logan was transported to a hospital, where he later died. No camera footage or witnesses exist of the incident, which has stirred up racial tensions in the area because the officer is white...

Before he paused campaign activities to remain in South Bend, Indiana, reeling from the officer-involved shooting death of a 53-year-old black man, Buttigieg was scheduled to trek to Los Angeles for a fundraising swing, including an event at the Beverly Hills home of mega producer Ryan Murphy that’s co-hosted by a long list of high-profile LGBTQ Hollywood figures. According to one fundraising source, the event, with tickets starting at $1,500 per person, sold out a month ago and was likely to bring in at least $250,000. It is being postponed. There’s a reason this group was so eager to meet...