(CNN) South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg criticized the Trump administration for missing "the point" after the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director made tweaks to the famous poem on the State of Liberty and said it was "referring back to people coming from Europe where they had class-based societies."

In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg pushed back on Ken Cuccinelli's comments

"The whole meaning of the immigrant experience in America is that America grows when we welcome immigrants, and many of the very people who came through in prior generations were characterized as unwanted, the way they talked about Italians, the way they talked about Irish people, exactly the way they're talking about people from Mexico and Central America today," the 2020 Democratic candidate told CNN.

"But you know, the idea of, 'Give me your tired, your poor,' that it only applies to some people is a pretty bad take on poetry from the acting director, and completely misses the point, which is that this is something that not only makes those who come to our shores better off, it is how our country grows, especially in the interior of our country."

On Tuesday night, CNN's Erin Burnett asked Cuccinelli about his changes to the poem by Emma Lazarus, which he made during an interview with NPR . Cuccinelli grew combative in response to Burnett's questions.

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