South Bend Mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was asked by ‘Good Morning America’ host George Stephanopoulos about an essay he wrote when he was 18 praising Bernie Sanders for being a socialist.

“Isn’t that a liability now?” Stephanopoulos asked.

And Mayor Pete got defensive.

EXCLUSIVE: Pete Buttigieg on whether "socialist" label could be liability for Democrats: "That trick has been tried so many times, I think it's losing all meaning." "The Affordable Care Act was a conservative idea…and they called that socialist." https://t.co/BESVTbYuqc pic.twitter.com/afKGAOPeHC — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 4, 2019

“That trick has been tried so many times.”

Yes, Mayor Buttigieg, Socialism has been tried many times, and Venezuela is on line one to tell us how it has worked out.

Nope- socialism isn’t a casual label. It’s a clear and destructive system that has never worked anywhere it has been tried- and can’t by design. It is important to keep saying that loudly for the folks on the back… https://t.co/l1smCUdBtK — Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) April 4, 2019

The fact that he got so defensive and pivoted to attacking Republicans is an indicator that he knows what the American people largely think of socialism.

Yes, socialists do not like when you tell the truth about their policies. https://t.co/czo8iIlTGF — RBe (@RBPundit) April 4, 2019

He goes on to prove that he really isn’t very well versed in modern political ideologies when he calls Obamacare a “conservative idea.”

Individual mandates.

Compulsion to purchase certain products.

Death panels.

Yeah, Obamacare was such a conservative idea.

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Pete Buttigieg is way too wonky a candidate to truly believe his own BS on the alleged pay gap https://t.co/m9CHnNAd1A — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 3, 2019