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By Ben Kamisar
WASHINGTON – The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, defended his lack of experience Sunday, saying that voters should look into the "quality and quantity" of time spent in the function public.
Appearing on "Meet the Press" a week before he officially announced his candidacy for the presidency, Buttigieg claimed that he would break into the White House with more experience in the executive and military domains as the two most recent presidents, and said that he was on the front line on big issues. like infrastructure, the economy and race relations as mayor.
And the 37-year-old mayer dismissed any fear that Americans would want a more experienced candidate to follow President Donald Trump, who has never held a public office until his 2016 White House victory. .
"I would share my experience with anyone," he said. I know it is not so traditional, I know I have not been marinated in Washington for a very long time and I am not part of the same establishment. But I would say that being a mayor of a city, no matter how big, means that you have to tackle the kind of problems that really affect Americans. "
"I think you can see quite clearly that I'm as different from this president as you get."
Buttigieg has been gaining popularity on the Democratic side. It used to be a relatively unknown product on the national scene, but the number of its surveys is increasing and it announced last week that its campaign has raised $ 7 million since its launch in January, an impressive figure for a newcomer .
He admitted that he was "as surprised as anyone" to see his stock go up so quickly, but added that his unique bid might appeal to those who want to "change channels since this fascinating horror show" of the Trump administration.
"You have this moment here, probably the only moment in American history, where it could make sense for someone of my age, from an experience in the industrial Midwest, to find a better place to work. a different, non-federal context, bringing something that will actually help Americans, "he said.
Buttigieg tried to distinguish between Trump and himself on issues such as immigration and faith.
On the subject of immigration, shortly after Trump declared that "the country was full," Buttigieg criticized the immigration and customs control agency, saying the debate on the issue to know whether or not to fund the agency is a larger debate on how to deal with immigrants.
"As long as you have an agency, even if you get rid of ICE and you call it otherwise, you are ordered to separate the families from each other or make it more difficult to access citizenship, you will continue to have heartbreaking stories that do not help anyone, "he said.
And he criticized what he called "the hypocrisy" of Trump and his supporters among the religious right, saying that Trump "is acting in a way that does not correspond to anything that I'm doing." "Hear in the scriptures or in the church."
"We see the opposite of this situation in this presidency," he said.
"Even in the version of Christianity that you hear from the religious right, which concerns sexual ethics, I can not believe that someone who has been caught writing checks for "Money for adult movie actresses is someone that they should be trying to make anyone they want to be at the helm of this nation."
Buttigieg's senior leadership experience took place in South Bend, a city that is still struggling to bounce back from a loss of industry. Data from the 2018 Census Bureau and EvictionLab.org show that the city has a poverty rate of 25.4% and a deportation rate of 6.7%.
While the mayor admitted that there was "a lot of work to be done in a community like ours," he explained that he was easily re-elected to his mayor position because he was making great strides in addressing these issues. problems.
"Our poverty rate is too high, but it is falling. We have reduced unemployment by more than half and we have been able to change the trajectory of the city, "he said.
"We have really changed the history of our city."
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