Vice President Mike Pence is "at best complicit" in the flourishing of white nationalist groups, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg told Buzzfeed News’s online show “AM to DM” on Wednesday.
Pence, said the South Bend, Ind., mayor, has been “consistently horrible” and Americans face a danger of the continued radicalization with “what seems at best to be a level of negligence, if not encouragement, coming from the highest office in the land.”
"The moment you come on board with a project like the Trump campaign or the Trump-Pence administration, you are at best complicit in the process that has given cover for the flourishing and resurgence of white nationalism," he added.
Buttigieg emphasized there is an obligation "to speak out about why [white nationalism is] wrong, why it’s not consistent with American values and why if we really want to talk about security and safety, that has less to do about putting up a wall from sea to shining sea than making sure that people are not continuing to be radicalized into violent white nationalism.”
Buttigieg, 37, the youngest in the 2020 Democratic field, has shot up in the latest polls to the surprise of many.
When asked how he hopes to build on his momentum, Buttigieg said that “for anybody who wants to outlive a sort of flavor-of-the-month phase the most important thing is substance. So, what we’re trying to do is put forward an account of where America is headed; what we think we need to do about it; what freedom, democracy and security mean in substantive terms, especially why they point in a progressive direction in my view.”
Talking about what it means to be the first openly gay presidential contender, Buttigieg said being gay is "part of who I am. And I’m proud of who I am… I’m also not running to be a candidate for any one constituency group.”