Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, is a man you might not be familiar with, but based on his comments at a televised SXSW CNN town hall, he’s definitely worth your time. Alongside Democratic hopefuls (and at this point, relative longshots) former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Buttigieg shared some unique and inspiring thoughts on just how to handle a possible impeachment for President Trump.
His solution, in short, is not to impeach Trump at all. Why? Vice President Mike Pence is no better, much as people would like to think his calm demeanor and comparatively better vocabulary suggest otherwise. Jake Tapper, of CNN, posed the question on whether Pence "would be a better or worse president than President Trump?" (Absolutely worse.)
"Does it have to be those two?" Buttigieg said smartly. Then, the mayor elaborated. He "used to at least believe" that Pence "believes in our institutions and was not personally corrupt, but then how could he get on board with this president?"
An excellent question.
"His interpretation of scripture is pretty different than mine to begin with," Buttigieg continued. "My understanding of scripture is that it's about protecting the stranger and the prisoner and the poor person and that idea. That's what I get in the gospel when I'm at church and his has a lot more to do with sexuality ... and a certain view of rectitude."
In perhaps one of the most obvious differences between himself and the VP, Buttigieg openly, explicitly supports transgender Americans and protections for LGBTQ people. (This is in addition to Buttigieg being
openly gay himself, obviously). He plainly stated that we need to end
“the war on trans Americans” and that “we need a federal Equality Act that would say that you cannot be fired just because of who you are or just because you love.”
So is impeaching Trump and freefalling into President Pence the right answer? Not according to Buttigieg. “The best way to defeat and end this is through an election," Buttigieg stated during the town hall, with an obvious caveat being that if Congress uncovers something terrible enough, an impeachment is basically required.
And remember: Both men are from Indiana. Buttigieg actually used to work with Pence directly when the current vice president was then a governor. "How would he allow himself to become the cheerleader for the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing Donald Trump?" Buttigieg said. "I don't know. I don't know."
Segueing into a different (and relatively radical) idea, Buttigieg moved into discussing the Supreme Court. "What we need to do is stop every [Supreme Court] vacancy from being this apocalyptic ideological battle," Buttigieg continued. His plan for this? Expand the Supreme Court from nine seats (its current number) to 15.
Buttigieg also promotes a guaranteed income for all Americans. In the town hall, he didn’t give a full plan on how this would work. He did discuss the need for our society to compensate labor that traditionally goes unpaid (and often falls on women), such as caring for an elderly or infirmed relative.
And hey, now that more people actually know who Buttigieg is, they’re pretty fired up:
You can watch an excerpt from the town hall here: