Buttigieg: Trump Doesn't Respect Presidency Or Himself.
TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.</s>CUOMO: Same night we get this breaking news on Bloomberg, earlier, I had a chance to sit down with Pete Buttigieg, and we talked about his giant leap in the polls in Iowa, and why he is the best in the party.</s>CUOMO: Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for taking the opportunity.</s>MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to be with you.</s>CUOMO: All right, let's talk about the good news. The good news is you in Iowa polls are moving up. You are in the thick of what could be a four-person race. In the latest polls, Quinnipiac, Siena, ahead of the former VP. Why do you think you are resonating more in a poll like this? And from whom do you think you are drawing support?</s>BUTTIGIEG: So, I think it's resonating because we have the winning message. What I'm offering is a way to unify the American people, and still get the job done. Look, that day the Sun comes up on this country, for the first time, and Donald Trump is no longer President, two things are going to be true. One is that we're going to be dangerously divided, even more than we are right now, if you just think about everything we've been through, and everything we're about to go through. The other thing that's also true is all of these big issues, climate, an economy that isn't working for everybody, the need to do something about healthcare, those issues aren't going to take a vacation for impeachment. They haven't taken a vacation for Donald Trump. They're going to need urgent action. So, the question is how do we get urgent action done and do it in a way that unifies, not polarizes, the American people? The more I talk about that, the more I see heads nodding everywhere I go. I think the people of Iowa and the people of - of America, certainly across the Democratic Party, are ready for that vision. And I think it's why we're catching on and gaining ground, but, obviously a long way to go, and a lot of people to bring our message to, who haven't heard it yet.</s>CUOMO: Do you think you're taking support from anyone?</s>BUTTIGIEG: You know, it's hard for me to know. I'll leave that to the analysts. What - what I do believe is that this is a message that can connect with progressives, with moderates, and we're seeing some Republicans cross-over. They're showing up at my events. They're saying they're going to support us. And part of me wants to say, "Well did you see the speech because, you know, I'm pretty progressive." But they're not looking for somebody who agrees with them on every single issue. I'm meeting Republicans who are just furious with what's being done in their name by this President, and looking for another way, and looking for somebody who's going to welcome everybody into a bigger coalition, to get these things done.</s>CUOMO: You have to play the game of "Better me than dot, dot, dot," in party. Why better you than Sanders or Warren who are much more pleasing to the progressive progressives in your party? You know, you're too safe--</s>BUTTIGIEG: Yes.</s>CUOMO: --Mr. Mayor.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Well what I'm offering is the most progressive Presidency of our lifetimes. Yes, it's true. I'm not going to go out to the extremes as some of the others will. But I'm also offering something that we can actually get done. If we achieve this, Medicare for All Who Want It, it would be huge, and it's the best pathway we have toward a Medicare-for-All environment, if we're right that this is going to be the best--</s>CUOMO: Warren says it's a half-measure and the product of a campaign that is run by consultants for safe ideas. She didn't say you, sounds like you.</s>BUTTIGIEG: It's a great idea. It's the right thing to do. And it's the boldest thing we will have done to healthcare in more than 50 years. That's - that's no half measure. This is what it takes to actually get something done.</s>CUOMO: She goes farther, more ambitious.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Yes.</s>CUOMO: More Left than you.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Why is that not better?</s>BUTTIGIEG: Because it's not better to command millions of Americans to abandon their private plans. Look, most Americans want to be able to make this decision themselves. And I trust you to figure out whether you want to come on this public plan that I'm proposing we create or stick with what you've got.</s>CUOMO: It can't work--</s>BUTTIGIEG: I'm talking to--</s>CUOMO: --if people have private insurance. That's what Bernie Sanders--</s>BUTTIGIEG: Yes.</s>CUOMO: --that's what Elizabeth Warren and others on that perspective will say.</s>BUTTIGIEG: That's just not true. I mean we know how to have risk management protocols. We've done them in other insurance markets in the U.S. Other countries have done it. Look, the bottom line is for a tiny fraction of the cost of what they're proposing, we can get every single American healthcare, and we do it in a way that respects your ability to make your decision.</s>CUOMO: So, on the other flank, you have the former VP, Joe Biden, who says, "I like the way this guy sounds, sounds like me. And I'm the former VP. I have the pedigree, and the experience, and I've been through this war many times. I know what it takes to beat Trump. So, next time, Mr. Mayor." What do you say to them?</s>BUTTIGIEG: I say it can't wait. Here's the difference. And I've got obviously enormous respect for - for all my competitors. But I just don't agree that we can go back to normal that - that I don't believe that Donald Trump is a blip. I believe that the emergence of the Trump Presidency is a symptom of some really serious deep problems that need attention in this country. And this is about building a new normal. This is about deciding what the next chapter in American history is going to be like, not going back to the last one.</s>CUOMO: So, you believe that you, not Biden, is a function of looking forward versus looking back?</s>BUTTIGIEG: In a way. The most important thing now is to make sure we create a vision of the future that can bring Americans together, and that doesn't have the weaknesses of the last 30-year, 40-year period we've been living in. If things were going along just fine in this country before a Donald Trump, then a guy like Donald Trump would never been able to get within cheating distance to The Oval Office to begin with.</s>CUOMO: Now that you are establishing yourself in this top four, your negatives now will be drawn into sharper focus. What are they? Ostensibly, two, right? The first one is, you know, you respect all your competitors. That's your problem. You're about to get into a fight where respect may be a weakness against maybe the best campaigner in the bunch. You can argue with his tactics, and what is guiding this President. But boy, can he push a message! And he's looking at you on the Left, and as you said in one of the debates, "You're all a bunch of socialists. You're all trying to take things from people. You're all trying to make everything OK. And you represent an "Other," and he's going to come at you, you're too nice."</s>BUTTIGIEG: So, I believe in kindness, but no one should mistake my kindness for weakness. And when it comes to dealing with this President, of course, he's going to try the same playbook, but it's not going to work on me. He's going to talk about socialism. But, in my case, he'll be saying that - that about a Mayor who worked with the private sector to deliver opportunities in our city. He's going to talk a big game about caring about working Americans. But, you know, I live in a middle-class neighborhood in the Midwest, and drive a Chevy. I don't helicopter around to golf courses with my name on them. And--</s>CUOMO: Too young!</s>BUTTIGIEG: You know--</s>CUOMO: Not a gray hair on his head.</s>BUTTIGIEG: I'm starting to get--</s>CUOMO: Makes me even (ph) jealous.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Every time I open Twitter, I get a new gray hair. Look, the reality is that we're living in a moment where around the world, we're seeing a new generation of leaders. Some of the most interesting and promising leaders in the world right now are the same age or younger than I would be on taking Office. And I'll put my experience, guiding a city up against a whole lot, in terms of what we were dealing with in South Bend, guiding that city to a better future, not to mention my military experience. I'll put that up against any experience. Yes, I'm young. I represent a new generation. You know what? Every single winning Democratic candidate in the last 50 years has been somebody who came from outside of Washington, was new on the national scene, talked lot about values, and represented a new generation of leadership.</s>CUOMO: Accepting President Obama, yes, vision, good, the vision thing, as they cynically say in politics, can resonate. But you're young and that becomes a coefficient of experience. Small town Mayor, two-term, but doesn't have the experience. If this were a written test, you get an A. But it's not. It's a practical. You haven't dealt with these kinds of pressures that can kill the average man. And even in that little town, you have a problem with African- Americans. They are the "Sine qua non," if we're going to play with Latin these days, they - this without this nothing, for Democrats, and they don't like you.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Well that's not true. The Black voters who know me best in the City of South Bend are largely responsible for how I got re- elected with 80 percent of the vote because of the good work that we were doing at home.</s>CUOMO: And polls that suggest they have issues with you.</s>BUTTIGIEG: There are a lot of - there's a lot of work that - that we've got to do to make sure that we earn every vote. But I reject the idea that - that I'm not going to be able to win Black voters. First of all, we got to stop talking about the Black vote like it's one person. We're talking about a diverse constituency. And a lot of Americans who frankly have felt not only abused by the Republican Party, but taken advantage of by the Democratic Party, or taken for granted. And so, we've got to make sure that we're showing we take nothing for granted that we're going to earn those votes. And The Douglass Plan that I've put forward to tackle systemic racism in this country is something that gets a terrific response from Black voters because I think it's the best policy out there. I think that when Black voters know what is on my agenda but also what's on my heart, I'm going to earn that support, and we're working hard to do that.</s>CUOMO: When you say we still have work to do, we can accept that in the micro, in South Bend, whatever the particular constituency issues are there. You got to deal with them. When you look at the polls in-house, and you see that you lag with African-Americans, specifically the all-important demographic of African-American women, middle-aged, why?</s>BUTTIGIEG: Well I think that when you are new on the scene, as I am, it takes extra work. I think that's part of why you see the VP's got a big advantage there right now. But that's nothing that I can't earn my way into. The important thing is to keep up that engagement. When people hear our message, they love it. But I got to get out there and sell it. And that's especially true as somebody who doesn't have years or decades of familiariating on the national scene. That doesn't deter me because I think the message that I have, one that is about ensuring that we deal, not only with issues like criminal justice reform, which we got to do, but also entrepreneurship. A lot of the solutions have to do with economic empowerment. And it's Black-owned businesses, women-owned businesses that are going to be a huge part of the solution. And we ought to be supporting that with policy, making sure that the federal government is doing more business with businesses owned by people who've been historically excluded, even co-investing to help businesses get on their feet. That's going to create so many opportunities in this country. And that and other elements of The Douglass Plan, the - the agenda that I have to support Black-Americans, and tear down this systemic inequality, I think it's the right answer.</s>CUOMO: All right, there is more to talk about with Mayor Pete. Where does his campaign stand on this Bloomberg development? What are his thoughts on impeachment being worth the pain? And hear for the first time what he really thinks about this President, next.</s>TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.