But Buttigieg faced a string of questions that cut to the core of his electability argument, including his relatively short resume, as the ex-mayor of a 100,000-person city, and his weakness among African American voters.
“If what you’re looking for is the most years spent in Washington, you’ve got a clear choice and it’s not going to be me,” Buttigieg said, in answer to whether he was qualified to be president. “But I would also argue that the kind of experience you have governing on the ground in a city of any size is the kind of experience we need more of in Washington.”
On his low-polling status among black voters, Buttigieg said that “having eight months to introduce yourself is, of course, not the same as having 20 or 30 or 40 years,” acknowledging that his primary rivals, particularly former Vice President Joe Biden, leads among African American voters by a wide margin.
Buttigieg took some veiled shots at his primary rivals, even on the grounds of his lack of experience. “I’ve heard some folks saying, ‘This is no time to take a risk.’ And I agree, but I think the biggest risk that we could take, right now, would be to try to go up against this president with the same old playbook that we’ve been relying on,” Buttigieg said.
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