Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg blew off Meghan McCain’s question about whether or not the Democratic Party would be able to rein in some of Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ most ardent supporters.
Buttigieg appeared Thursday on ABC’s “The View” to discuss Sanders and his exit from the 2020 Democratic primary just one day earlier. (RELATED: ‘I Wouldn’t Put Anything Past Bernie And His Supporters’: Meghan McCain Says Bernie Will Not Go Quietly)
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McCain began by noting that a number of Sanders supporters had ultimately voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. “President Trump yesterday was tweeting that the DNC has fixed this and rigged it so Bernie would lose, and he invited Bernie supporters to support him instead,” she explained.
McCain went on to say that Sanders’ die-hard supporters appeared to have a penchant for misogynistically-charged attacks, adding that there were no “Pete Bros.” who attacked her on social media when she had been critical of him.
“There’s a question of history repeating itself with the Bernie supporters. You seem to have faith because you spoke with Senator Sanders, that his supporters will come on board to Joe Biden, but how do you think you can stop history from repeating itself in this lane?” McCain asked.
Buttigieg evaded the question, focusing instead on repeating what had essentially been his platform when he was still running for president.
“First of all, I think we have to define real progressivism not by how negative you can be on Twitter or how angry you are, but by what it is we’re actually for, and what all of us are for,” Buttigieg began, mentioning platform staples such as health care, worker empowerment and climate change.
“I know exactly how it feels, not getting your candidate through a primary process,” Buttigieg continued. “You have to know what’s in the end of this. Shame on us if we let 2016 repeat itself. A lot of people took their ball and went home, not believing a Trump presidency could actually happen. Not only did it happen, it’s worse than we thought, and we’re seeing now in the midst of a national crisis, just how costly that is.”
Buttigieg then turned the challenge to Sanders’ supporters, saying that conversations about moving further toward progressive ideals could come later. “Let’s have that debate, but we don’t even get to have that debate if we don’t win in November,” he concluded.