South Bend Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg invited protesters to display a banner at his campaign event, and was shocked as he read it aloud, saying “‘You will kill us’? That’s really mean!”

Mayor Pete took questions at a town hall event at Grinnell College in Iowa Friday, and as he wrapped up, noticed a group of students with banners sitting near the front.

“Do you want to go ahead and do the thing, here?” Buttigieg said, inviting them to stage their protest. The invitation drew some laughter from the crowd.

As the students tried to unfurl their signs, Buttigieg coached them, saying “You might want to pass it down a little so we can… Still can’t make it out…”

“Youth, hope, you will use to,” Buttigieg slowly read as the banners were being displayed.

“‘You will…’ no I won’t, ‘You will kill us?'” That’s really mean!” a shocked Mayor Pete said, promising “No, I’m here to help you”.

“‘Pro corporate funding equals climate chaos,’ that’s why I don’t take corporate PAC money,” Buttigieg said, commenting as he read.

“And ‘Wall Street Pete,’ I remember when they said the same thing about Obama, and then he set up the CFPB, put Elizabeth Warren in charge of it, and delivered some of the toughest regulations on Wall Street ever,” Buttigieg said, and added “So I appreciate where you’re coming from, I appreciate all of you coming here.”

The protest comes after Massachusetts Senator and Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren attacked Mayor Pete for holding private fundraisers, saying “I think that Mayor Pete should open up the doors so that anyone can come in and report on what’s being said. Those doors shouldn’t be closed, and no one should be left to wonder what kind of promises are being made to the people that then pony up big bucks to be in the room.”

Warren herself has sworn off big-dollar fundraisers, a move which she once described as “unilateral disarmament.”

Watch the clip above, via C-Span.

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