Pete Buttigieg tells Donald Trump ‘show some goddamn respect’ after claiming he’s ‘done the most for Black people’
Pete Buttigieg (L) launched an attack against Donald Trump for claiming he’s done ‘more for the Black community than anyone else’. (Getty)
Pete Buttigieg tore into Donald Trump after the final presidential debate for his claim “no one has done more for the Black community” than he has – aside from Abraham Lincoln.
Though it was a debate far calmer, with less bloated bluster and name-calling than the last, Trump astounded many by claiming he is the “least racist person in this room”.
“Nobody has done more for the black community than Donald Trump… with the exception of Abraham Lincoln,” he claimed.
Joe Biden was quick to snipe back: “‘Abraham Lincoln’ here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire.”
Trump’s claim was actually a rehashed line he has delivered on several occasions throughout this year, debunked by fact-checkers at the time.
Even still, it ignited fury from Buttigieg, the first openly gay presidential candidate of a major party.
Buttigieg tweeted: “The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 by President Johnson.
“Show some goddamned [sic] respect.”
Lyndon Johnson shepherded in arguably some of the biggest legislative boosts to civil rights with a raft of bills — the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act — during his leadership.
Pete Buttigieg has dealt broadside after broadside against Donald Trump.
Often with a raised brow, Pete Buttigieg has increasingly badgered the president while swinging his support towards Biden in the tense run-up to the election.
During the debate, he delivered starkly different forecasts of what the US will be like if either candidate is elected.
We can do better. And November 3, we will.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) October 23, 2020
This exchange on family separation is all you need to see to understand the difference between these two.
A clear, moral message from Joe Biden.
Noise, insults, and denial from Donald Trump.— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) October 23, 2020
Joe Biden is demonstrating the focus a president should have: on the people.— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) October 23, 2020
Donald Trump called Black Lives Matter a ‘symbol of hate’.
In the last week, Buttigieg has made clear on many, many occasions that Trump’s Supreme Court justice pick, Amy Coney Barrett, could prove disastrous for LGBT+ people.
Buttigieg also pressed a familiar line of attack – Trump’s “secret Chinese bank account” – during a stint on Fox News Thursday night (October 22).
Joe Biden and Donald Trump sparred over Black Lives Matter during the final debate before the election. (Jim Bourg-Pool/Getty Images)
During Thursday’s debate, moderator Kristen Welker noted that Trump had called Black Lives Matter “a symbol of hate” and had shared white supremacist content on Twitter.
Indeed, Trump has consistently stoked further civil unrest on his Twitter account amid demonstrations against police brutality and refused to denounce white supremacists.
As Biden noted during the debate, in 1989 he once spent tens of thousands of dollars pushing for the death penalty against the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino teens wrongfully accused of raping a white woman.
In his stump speech he fell back onto the twin backbones Trump officials have been forced to rely on in recent weeks to show that Trump “supports” Black Americans – his support for historically Black colleges and criminal justice reforms.
In his line of defence, Trump replied: “I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the Black community.
“I didn’t say, ‘I’m Abraham Lincoln’. I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the Black community.”
