Rev. Barber: “Why can’t we just own in America that some of the people that are trying to come from Mexico here are coming back to land we stole”

Given how completely out of left field the leading 2020 Democrat presidential contenders are, it’s become somewhat common to see Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as a moderate. Perhaps when compared to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fringe leftist Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), he is a moderate. But that’s still miles from the center where ordinary Americans tend to reside.

On Sunday, Buttigieg demonstrated just how far left he lands on the spectrum as he nodded along as Reverend William Barber talked about how illegal aliens are just reclaiming land “stole” from them by the United States. You know, the country Buttigieg wants to elect him as president. He did not make any effort to challenge Barber’s claims.

Pete Buttigieg with a valiant effort to take the lead in the “woke olympics.” Buttigieg nods along in agreement with the claim that illegal immigrants are reclaiming stolen land in US.pic.twitter.com/iLHsMIvyBw — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 1, 2019

Here’s a partial transcript of the video exchange (via Daily Wire):

“Let me ask you a couple quick rapid-fire [questions],” Barber began. “Do you think we need to also stop allowing forces to demonize ‘people who are trying to get their immigration status’ and we start lifting up all the ways they benefit this country?” “Yeah, I mean the uncomfortable reality is that undocumented folks are in many ways, like Social Security, subsidizing everybody else,” Buttigieg claimed. “And we need to talk about that – and shouldn’t we have some conversation whenever people say, we call people ‘illegal aliens’ and all these things that are not human, are certainly not Christian,” Barber continued. “Why can’t we just own in America that some of the people that are trying to come from Mexico here are coming back to land we stole, and the reason we took the land is because people wanted to keep their slaves?”

Buttigieg nods along and offers absolutely no attempt to interrupt or pushback against these claims. Note, he does feel the need to interrupt with his statement that illegals are “subsidizing everyone else,” so he’s not incapable of speaking up. He chose not to.

Barber’s claims are radical and fringe even among Democrats, so it’s a relatively safe bet that it won’t play well in middle America where the eventual Democrat presidential nominee will need to win votes.

It reminds me a little of when a video surfaced of then-candidate Obama’s pastor making a host of anti-American statements. We didn’t have a video of Obama nodding along with him, much less in a position to counter the claims. Still, the association of Obama to Reverend Jeremiah Wright was damaging.

So damaging that Obama eventually had to distance himself from Wright.

﻿

Buttigieg, if he continues to make gains in the Democratic field, will likely have to address this moment and similarly distance himself from the fringe claims he appears in this video to be agreeing are accurate.

Whatever gains he may have been hoping to make among black and Hispanic Democrat primary voters are not worth the optics of an American presidential hopeful agreeing with Barber’s inflammatory claims.



