Rolling Stone - USA (2020-02)

42 | Rolling Stone | February 2020

P

ETE BUTTIGIEG has re-
turned to the scene of
the crime. He is back at
Stevens High School in
Claremont, New Hampshire, on a
desultory Saturday in January. The
ancient gym walls were bathed in
red, white, and blue spotlights
the last time he was here for a Fox
News Town Hall with Chris Wal-
lace last May. That night was seen
by most as an overwhelming suc-
cess, a breakthrough on the path
of a 38-year-old gay mayor of Indi-
ana’s fourth-largest city becoming
a plausible presidential candidate.
The progressive wing of the
Democratic Party saw it different-
ly. To them, Buttigieg had not only
granted an interview to Hannity
Enterprises, but espoused a litany
of milquetoast half measures that
revealed he was a centrist at best
and, according to the more con-
spiratorially minded, some kind of
Republican sleeper agent.
The left has balked at Butti-
gieg both on policy and biogra-
phy. His work for McKinsey and
Co., a global consulting firm, has
been cast as nefarious toiling for
a corporation concerned more
about the bottom line than peo-
ple. His lack of support from Af-
rican Americans has provided
detractors with evidence that he
couldn’t put together the broad
coalition needed to defeat Donald
Trump in November.
Buttigieg’s awkwardly named
Medicare for All Who Want It, al-
lowing Americans the choice to
keep their private insurance, has
outraged Bernie Sanders and Eliz-
abeth Warren patriots pushing
for Medicare for All. Some of the
left’s vitriol has come across as
somewhat nutty, including a Jaco-
bin magazine writer’s tweet that
Buttigieg’s service in Afghanistan

was a mere “photo op.” When

Buttigieg was the last candidate

to respond to the assassination

of Qasem Soleimani, a Twitterite

responded, “He is waiting for a

callback from his handler.”

Buttigieg has often said that he

is immune to the type of taunts

that Donald Trump dishes out,

saying that someone who grew up

gay in Indiana is not susceptible to

the president’s particularly juve-

nile brand of bullying. But when

I asked about the criticisms from

within his party, he admitted the

attacks bug him. “It can be more

frustrating when it’s folks I’m 80

or 90 percent aligned with,” the

candidate tells me while sitting in

the gym’s tiny office.

Buttigieg’s political approach

seems driven by what is obtain-

able rather than what is ideal. He

has pitched the idea of free or re-

duced college for the bottom 90

percent while letting the top 10

percent fend for themselves, an

idea that the left finds strangely

offensive. His health care option

is less likely to scare off affluent

independents than Warren and

Sanders’ all-or-nothing approach,

perhaps giving it a better chance

to pass in a divided Congress.

Whether measured change will ap-

peal to Democratic voters in these

kill-or-be-killed times is uncertain.

Buttigieg sat down with ROLLING

STONE a day after Trump said

the mayor adopted his faith two

weeks ago and Buttigieg answered

with, “I’m pretty sure I’ve been a

believer longer than he’s been a

Republican.”

Slings and arrows have been

coming your way from the pro-

gressive side of the party, sug-

gesting everything from you’re a

calculating résumé builder to “a

Republican plant.” What would

you say to those who have a vis-

ceral reaction against you?

I mean, the first message is to re-

mind folks that I would be the

most progressive president we’ve

had in the last half-century and

that we share the same values

and, in many ways, the same ob-

jectives. A lot of this is the heat of

competition. It’s not based on sub-

stance. After all, even on the sub-

stance, some of the areas where

I’m most differentiated from the

candidates to my left — the idea

of more choice in health care cov-

erage, the idea of targeting free

college where it’ll make the big-

gest difference — [are] actually

positions more progressive than

Bernie held just a few years ago.

Sen. Warren is now attacking

you for your fundraising strat-

egy. You’ve talked about an

amendment to repeal Citizens

United. Do you feel that you are

just taking advantage of the

rules as they are laid out today?

First of all, I’m not a fan of the

rules as they’re laid out today,

which is why I proposed reform,

but also, I don’t think anybody

would have guessed that they

would benefit me much. I mean

the office of mayor of South Bend

is not an establishment fundrais-

ing powerhouse. We had to get

Mayor Pete’s Middle Path

THE NATURAL

Buttigieg on

the trail in New

Hampshire:

“My positions

are more

progressive than

Bernie held just

a few years ago.”

He’s taking hits from

the left and trying

to win over black

voters, but Buttigieg

makes the case that a

pragmatist can win

By STEPHEN RODRICK

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

MA

RK

PE

TE

RS

ON

/R

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UX

Editors note:

This interview

has been

condensed for

space. A longer

version appears

on Rolling

Stone.com