Buttigieg warns Dems not to 'play it safe' in picking 2020 candidate

[DonViejo]

By SARAH CAMMARATA 06/28/2019 09:16 AM EDT

Pete Buttigeig warned the Democratic Party Friday against seeking a return to the pre-President Donald Trump status quo as it picks a 2020 presidential candidate, telling MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that such thinking is a "dangerous message" because "normal didn't work."

The South Bend, Ind., mayor cautioned in particular against prioritizing electability over all else, suggesting that such thinking could lead Democrats toward a candidate who will be unable to persuade voters to unseat Trump and move in a fresh direction. The remark appeared to be a veiled shot at former Vice President Joe Biden, the septuagenarian 2020 primary front-runner who has faced criticism that he is out of touch with the current Democratic Party.

"The challenge we have at the moment like this, there's a temptation to play it safe in the Democratic Party. That's almost always been self-defeating but that temptation is there because we know how important it is to defeat Donald Trump," he said. "Out of that is arising the message that what we're going to offer as a party is we're going to go back to normal. We're going to return to what we were doing before."

"That's a very dangerous message for us to adopt because normal didn't work. Not in the industrial Midwest where I live," he continued. "If we look like we're trying to promise that we'll go back to the 2000s or 1990s, even if that's just kind of implied in our messaging, then I think we're gonna lose a lot of people."

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/28/pete-buttigieg-2020-election-1386593