Democratic debate: Recap of Pete Buttigieg's performance

Chris Sikich | Indianapolis Star

Show Caption Hide Caption Warren, Buttigieg spar over fundraiser, wine caves A dispute over fundraising between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg spilled onto the debate stage Thursday. Warren described a lavish Buttigieg fundraiser in a "wine cave" with $900 bottles of wine and crystal chandeliers. (Dec. 20)

Seven Democrats including Pete Buttigieg faced off Thursday night in a debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Here's a recap of how the mayor of South Bend fared against former Vice President Joe Biden, entrepreneurs Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Buttigieg keeps the focus on Trump

Update: 10:25 p.m.

Buttigieg had a ready response for an unusual final question: If you could ask for forgiveness or give someone a gift, what would you do?

"I think all of us want the same thing at the end of the day — to know what a gift it would be to the future and the country for literally anyone up here to become president of the United States compared to what we've got."

In a nod to the infighting in the debate for much of the final hour, he said the field should rally around whichever candidate wins the Democratic nomination.

"Let’s make sure there’s not too much to forgive for when that time comes," he said.

Debate takeaways: Pete Buttigieg finds himself in the crosshairs

Klobuchar takes on Buttigieg

Update: 10 p.m.

Klobuchar took a shot at Buttigieg for his comments during the November debate that the over 100 years of Washington experience on the stage that night hadn’t solved the country’s problems.

She said their experience should be respected and she hadn’t denigrated his experience as a local official. She listed several pieces of legislation the senators on the stage had helped to pass.

Buttigieg pointed out his own experience had been under attack earlier.

“I was going to let it go because we’ve got bigger fish to fry,” he said.

“I don’t think we have bigger fish to fry than picking a president of the United States,” she broke in.

Buttigieg said everyone on the stage has the same commitment to the Constitution, despite her seeming to say earlier, he said, that Washington officials had a greater commitment.

He said he swore an oath when he joined the military.

She said the issue is not about his military service; it’s about winning the presidency.

Klobuchar seemed to criticize Buttigieg for having run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2017, saying she wants to be president, not a party official.

She said the senators on the stage have all shown they know how to win a lot of votes in an election.

“If you just go by vote totals I know that what goes on in my city seems small to you,” Buttigieg said. “Try putting together a coalition to bring me back to office with 80 percent of the vote as a gay dude in Mike Pence’s Indiana.”

Klobuchar criticized him for losing a statewide election in Indiana, a race for treasurer before he was mayor.

“If you had won in Indiana that would be one thing,” she said. “You tried and you lost by 20 points.”

Buttigieg supports reparations

Update: 9:45 p.m.

Buttigieg said he supports a commission that some Congressional members want to form to look at reparations for slavery. But he also indicated that he already thinks reparations are needed.

He said replacing a racist policy with a neutral policy isn’t enough to undo centuries of damage.

He referenced his Douglass plan to invest in minority businesses, health care and education.

Buttigieg says his immigration policy would follow laws and values

Update: 9:43 p.m.

Buttigieg said he is committed to financially compensating families that have been separated at the border with Mexico and to fast-tracking children to citizenship.

He said the United States is a country of laws and values and his immigration policy would reflect that.

Warren and Buttigieg spar over donors

Update: 9:40 p.m.

Warren criticized the mayor’s willingness to have fundraisers with top-dollar donors. Sanders and Yang later chimed in on Warren’s side.

“We are in the fight of our lives right now,” Buttigieg said. “Donald Trump and his allies have made it abundantly clear they will stop at nothing. … This is our only chance to defeat Donald Trump. We shouldn’t try to do it with one hand tied behind our back.”

Buttigieg said such is the problem with what he called a "purity test," perhaps referring to the increasing amount of criticism he is hearing from progressives. He then took a shot at Warren, saying he would gladly accept the maximum allowable donation of $2,800 from her despite the fact, he said, that she is a rich progressive.

Warren said she does not sell access to her time.

“I do not sell my time to millionaires and billionaires,” she said. “I don’t meet behind closed doors."

The close-door comment was a reference to private fundraisers Buttigieg was holding that he was not allowing the press to cover. This month he did open all of his fundraisers to the media after hearing increasing criticism from Warren and others.

Warren said donors know they won’t be able to trade money for ambassadorships if she is elected. If Buttigieg can’t take the steps that are easy, she said, how can Americans trust him to stand up to the connected and wealthy.

Buttigieg responded: “If you can’t say no to a donor you have no business running for office in the first place.”

He noted that she transferred millions of dollars into her presidential campaign from her Senate campaign coffers that were raised in part with top-dollar fundraisers.

“Did it corrupt you, Senator?” he asked. “Of course not.”

Sanders a few moments later took a shot at Buttigieg for the number of millionaires who have donated to his campaign. And Yang referenced a “wine cave” fundraiser Buttigieg held in Napa Valley that made headlines this week.

Buttigieg takes on President Trump

Update: 9:10 p.m.

Buttigieg used a pair of foreign policy questions about Israel and China to criticize the president and make the case he would bring respectability back to U.S. foreign relations.

He said Trump’s policy toward Israel is failing even as he tries to shape himself as pro Israeli and pro Jewish “while welcoming white nationalists into the White House.”

He said both allies and adversaries are forging ahead without leadership from the United States, ignoring the United States, because the United States is no longer considered reliable. He said America needs to lead and needs to live up to its own values.

“It’s the looks on the faces of the leaders of the UN as they looked at the United States president with a mixture of contempt and pity," Buttigieg said. "As an American, I never again want to see an American president looked at that way by the leaders of the world.”

Moments later, he was asked about China and again criticized Trump’s record.

Buttigieg criticized Trump’s silence as the Chinese imprisoned Muslim leaders and as the people of Hong Kong have fought for democracy.

As president, Buttigieg said he would make it clear China would not be able to have another “Tiananmen Square.”

“They will be isolated from the free world, and we will lead that isolation both diplomatically and economically.”

Buttigieg was asked about Trump's record on the press.

"He is echoing vocabulary of dictators around the world," Buttigieg said. "When the American president refers to unfavorable press coverage as the product of the enemy of the people, Democracy around the world gets weaker."

Buttigieg defends climate record

Update: 8:40 p.m.

Buttigieg said climate change will be a first-day action, responding to some criticism by Steyer. The mayor said he proposes a carbon tax and investment in renewable energy.

Buttigieg said he lives along the river in South Bend and so has seen first-hand how historic floods have caused damage. It’s a point he often makes on the campaign trail, in which he points out South Bend has had two historic floods since he has been mayor.

He also said politicians need to engage everyday people, like auto workers and farmers, in solutions rather than “beat them over the head” with policy changes.

Buttigieg says progressives present a false choice

Update: 8:35 p.m.

Buttigieg indicated that Americans are being offered a false choice by certain progressive ideas.

When asked about Warren’s spending proposals on items such as Medicare for All, Buttigieg said it seems that “we either have to go all the way to the extreme or it's business as usual."

He said taxes on the rich and corporations would have to go up, but he said it can be done without spending the amount of money that economists say will hurt the economy.

He referenced his plan to have free tuition for college for all but the top 20 percent of wage earners.

“On issue after issue we have got to break out of the Washington mindset that measures the bigness of an idea by how many trillions of dollars it adds to the budget or the boldness of an idea by how many fellow Americans it can antagonize,” he said.

Buttigieg says lagging wages are the result of bad policies

Update: 8:25 p.m.

Buttigieg said that while the stock market is soaring, regular people doing bills at the end of the month are finding their wages aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of owning a house and health care.

“Where I live, folks aren’t measuring the economy by how the Dow Jones is doing,” he said. “They are measuring the economy by how they are doing.”

He said it’s also important to understand that the working poor are struggling.

He said there isn’t one county in the country where someone working full time at the minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment. Most places, he said, they can’t afford a one-bedroom apartment.

“The biggest problem in our economy is simple," he said. "People are not getting paid enough. That is not the result of some mysterious cosmic force. It is the result of bad policies, and we have got to change it by raising wages and empowering workers. "

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Buttigieg says Washington politicos want you to feel helpless

Update: 8:20 p.m.

Buttigieg said President Trump left the House of Representatives with no choice but to vote to impeach him, despite knowing he would likely be acquitted in the Senate.

The impeachment of Trump, Buttigieg said, goes beyond public opinion, polls and politics. He said Americans can’t afford to allow Congress to go through the motions without expecting much to happen.

"We cannot give into that sense of helplessness,” he said, “because that’s what they want.”

The good news, he said, is “it’s up to us in 2020."

"This is our chance to refuse to be taken in by the helplessness, to refuse and reject the cynicism. That is what this general election is about. It is what my campaign is about."

Buttigieg takes the stage in Los Angeles

Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg will look to build upon his rising status in the Democratic primary field at tonight's debate in Los Angeles.

He has risen into double digits at 13 percent in the latest survey from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist after shooting to the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire.

It's not all good news, though, for the mayor of South Bend. He still has ground to make up among black and Latino voters as evidenced by his lagging status in South Carolina, the first racially diverse state to hold a nominating contest.

Today's debate, which is scheduled for 8-11 p.m. on PBS and CNN, is his next opportunity to make his case to a wider audience.

The debate field has narrowed after the Democratic National Committee raised the fundraising and polling standards to qualify. Also participating will be former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, billionaire Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Check here for live updates of Buttigieg's performance from IndyStar politics reporter Chris Sikich.

Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at 317-444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.