A Conversation With Pete Buttigieg
WAMU-FM
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
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Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg speaks during a news conference, announcing that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, may be one of the best-known mayors in the country.
And he’s formed an exploratory committee for a presidential bid, making him the first millennial and the first openly gay candidate.
Buttigieg also served in Afghanistan, was a Rhodes Scholar and he went to Harvard.
Despite his youth, Buttigieg’s pitch is built around executive experience — something he says he has more of than the current president. He explained to New York why he thinks managing a sewer system is like managing national security:
Like public surface in general, sewers are unbelievably important. They’re so important that we make sure they work basically all of the time. Which is why you never think of them — that’s kind of the point. But it’s not that different from national security. It’s like I say, people experience the more freedom the less they think about it. By the way, most infrastructure is underground. I know we think about bullet trains and airports. That’s cool, too, but if you really want to talk about a major American infrastructure program, come see what the combined sewer overflow cities are dealing with.
He also told New York that he and his team aren’t “stupid, we understand that this is an underdog project.”
We’ll speak to him about his priorities in the 2020 race.
Produced by Bianca Martin.
GUESTS
Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana; a member of the Democratic Party; @PeteButtigieg
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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