Buttigieg: Trump, Pence ‘complicit’ in white nationalist revival

Presidential candidate and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg told BuzzFeed News’s “AM2DM” morning show that he believes the Trump administration’s “negligence if not encouragement” of white nationalism is a security threat. 

“If we really want to talk about security and safety, that has less to do with putting up a wall from sea to shining sea than to making sure people are not continuing to be radicalized into violent white nationalism with what seems at best to be a level of negligence if not encouragement from the highest office in the land,” Buttigieg said on Wednesday’s show. 

{mosads}He also said he believes fellow Indiana politician Vice President Pence, who previously served as the state’s governor, is “at best complicit” with white nationalism.

“In terms of white nationalism, I’m sure that he does not consider himself to be a racist,” he said of Pence. “But I think 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 a flourishing and resurgence of white nationalism in our midst.”

#AM2DM is LIVE and we are demanding #JusticeForShuri! Plus, @cwgeere and @paulscheer are here, and we’re getting on the phone with 2020 candidate @PeteButtigieg https://t.co/dYoIIWqwgw

— AM2DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM) March 27, 2019

The administration has been criticized for its handling of white supremacist violence, particularly after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in which Heather Heyer, a counterprotester who was against white nationalism, was killed. After the event, President Trump blamed “many sides” for the Charlottesville, Va., riot, saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of the argument.

Buttigieg is one of more than a dozen Democratic politicians who have launched or are considering a 2020 White House bid. He was once viewed as a long-shot candidate for the nomination, but he has garnered a lot of media attention in recent weeks.