Mayor Pete Sets Himself Apart at First Democratic Debate

“Washington can't deliver on something the American people want. What does that tell you about the system we're living in? It tells you it needs profound structural reform.”

“If more guns made us safer, we'd be the safest country on earth.”

“We have no idea which of our most important allies he will have pissed off worse between now and then. What we know is that our relationship with the entire world needs to change.”

Miami, FL -- During tonight’s Democratic presidential debate Mayor Pete set himself apart on the stage.

Key Excerpts:

ONLY ONE TO MENTION RURAL AMERICA

This isn't theoretical for us in South Bend either. Parts of California on fire right here in Florida, they're talking about sea level rise will. Well in Indiana, I had to activate the emergency operation center of our city twice in less than two years. The first time was a thousand year flood and the next time was a 500 year flood. This is not just happening on the arctic ice caps. This is happening in the middle of the country.

First of all, rural America can be part of the solution. Instead of being told they're part of the problem with the right kind of soil management and other kinds of investments, rural America could be a huge part of how we get this done. And secondly, we've got to look to the leadership of local communities. There's networks of mayors and cities from around the world who've come together, not even waiting for our national governments to catch up. We should have a Pittsburgh summit where we bring them together, as well as rejoining the Paris climate agreement. [...]



ONLY ONE TO TAKE ON REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY ON FAMILY SEPARATION

We've got to talk about one other thing, because the Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the real language of religion. Now, our Party doesn't talk about that as much, largely for a very good reason, which is we are committed to the separation of church and state, and we stand for people of any religion and people of no religion, but we should call out hypocrisy when we see it.

And for a party that associates itself with Christianity to say that it is okay to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.



ONLY ONE WHO PRIORITIZED FIXING OUR DEMOCRACY

We've got to fix our democracy before it's too late. Get that right. Climate integration, taxes and every other issue gets done.



ONLY ONE TALKING ABOUT MAKING NOT GOING TO COLLEGE AFFORDABLE

Now there's something else that doesn't get talked about in the college affordability debate. Yes, it needs to be more affordable in this country to go to college. It also needs to be more affordable in this country to not go to college.

I also believe in free college for low and middle income students for whom cost could be a barrier. I just don't believe it makes sense to ask working class families to subsidize even the children of billionaires.



ON RESTORING AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIPS

We have no idea which of our most important allies he will have pissed off worse between now and then. What we know is that our relationship with the entire world needs to change, and it starts by modeling American values at home.



SHOWED LEADERSHIP ON ISSUES OF RACE AND POLICING

And until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism, whatever this particular issue teaches us, we will be left with the bigger problem of the fact that there’s a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time...It threatens the well being of every community. And I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the exact same thing. A feeling not of fear, but of safety. I am determined to bring that day about. [...]

Because I couldn't get it done. My community is in anguish right now. Because of an officer involved shooting, a black man, Eric Logan, killed by a white officer. And I'm not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back, the officer said he was attacked with a knife, but he didn't have his body camera on. It's a mess. And we're hurting.

And I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community, all of the steps that we took from bias training to deescalation, but, it didn't save the life of Eric Logan. And when I look into his mother's eyes, I have to face the fact that nothing that I say will bring him back...This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country.



FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE DEALING WITH GUN VIOLENCE

If more guns made us safer, we'd be the safest country on earth. That doesn't work that way. And common sense measures like universal background checks can't seem to get delivered by Washington even when most Republicans, let alone most Americans agree it's the right thing to do. And as somebody who trained on weapons of war, I can tell you that there are weapons that have absolutely no place in American cities or neighborhoods in peacetime, ever. [...]

Look, every part of my life experience informs this. Being the mayor of a city where the worst part of the job is dealing with violence. We lose as many as were lost at Parkland every two or three years in my city alone, and this is tearing communities apart.



WARNS OF CHINA CAPITALIZING ON FOREIGN POLICY CHAOS

And if you look at what China is doing, they’re using technology for the perfection of dictatorship. But their fundamental economic model isn't gonna change because of some tariffs.

And this president is fixated on the China relationship as if all that mattered was the export balance on dishwashers. We've got a much bigger issue on our hands but at a moment when their authoritarian model is being held up as an alternative to ours because ours looks so chaotic compared to theirs right now because of our internal divisions. The biggest thing we've gotta do is invest in our own domestic competitiveness. If we disinvest in our own infrastructure, education, we are never going to be able to compete. And if we really wanna be an alternative, a democratic alternative, we actually have to demonstrate that we care about democratic values at home and around the world.

CRITICIZED WASHINGTON FOR PLAYING POLITICS WITH IMMIGRATION

The American people want a pathway to citizenship. They want to protections for dreamers. We need to clean up the lawful immigration system. Like how my father immigrated to this country and as part of a compromise, we can do whatever common sense measures are needed at the border, but Washington can't deliver on something the American people want. What does that tell you about the system we're living in? It tells you it needs profound structural reform.

But of course the real problem is we shouldn't have 11 million undocumented people with no pathway to citizenship. It makes no sense. And the American people, the American people agree on what to do. This is the crazy thing. If leadership consists of, of forming a consensus around a divisive issue, this White House has divided us around a consensus issue.

And remember, we're talking about something, people are given a chance to buy into. In the same way that there are undocumented immigrants in my community who pay. They pay sales taxes, they pay property taxes directly or indirectly. This is not about a handout. This is an insurance program and we do ourselves no favors by having 11 million undocumented people in our country be unable to access healthcare.