Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg , who is currently fourth in the polls, was on the attack during Tuesday’s debate and it impressed many pundits. Per IndyStar , USA Today and Fox News both named him the winner of the debate, while CNN listed him as among the winners.
But a quick turn to more left-leaning independent media reveals a lot more disdain for Buttigieg’s moderate approach. In particular, progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski, host of his eponymous show, didn’t mince his words when describing the South Bend Mayor.
“Mayor Pete jumped into the presidential race praising Bernie Sanders,” he tweeted.
“Now that he realizes there’s no path for him to win that way he does a 180 and is suddenly a conservative democrat. He’s the textbook definition of a flip flopping fraud and nobody should trust him.”
“Pete keeps saying we need ‘solutions’ without providing any. Can the moderators ask about that?” tweeted progressive journalist and Young Turks host Emma Vigeland.
“Buttigieg seems overjoyed at finally leaning into his true persona tonight: a huge piece of sh*t,” tweeted journalist Jack Mirkinson.
Per Business Insider , Buttigieg’s aggressive performance is likely an attempt to move his numbers, which have failed to surge significantly in the last few months. He took particular aim at second-place candidate Elizabeth Warren, who Insider polling suggests 88 percent of his supporters would be satisfied with as president. Given that Warren poses a threat to Buttigieg in the form of potential voter loss, his attacks on Warren appear to be strategic.
Next, we asked about favorability ratings. Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Warren improved their net favorables by the most. Beto, Castro, Gabbard, Harris and (at the margin) Booker all saw their net favorables decline. Meh results for Biden and Sanders. pic.twitter.com/poddk7EKdK
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 16, 2019
In particular, Buttigieg took aim at Warren’s inability to reveal the costs of her single-payer healthcare plan.
“Your signature is to have a plan for everything, except this,” he said.
As The Inquisitr reported, Buttigieg came under scrutiny recently when secret recordings suggested that he fired South Bend’s first black police chief, Darryl Boykins, due to pressure from campaign donors. This pressure was allegedly applied due to a plan concocted by white police officers.
Buttigieg was reportedly not aware of the plan when it was created but allegedly discovered its existence in n January of 2012. He subsequently asked Boykins to resign two months later, although he walked back the resignation and demoted Boykins instead following backlash from the black community.
In the secret recordings, the officers behind the alleged plan reference three black officers as targets. Interestingly, these officers did not receive promotions following Buttigieg’s election, and only one remains on the force.