It may be hard to remember, but once upon a time the media was infatuated with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, but even Buttigieg's own party grew tired of his empty platitudes and inexperience and as a result he withdrew from the presidential race. On Monday's Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace and correspondent Vaughn Hillyard reminisced about Buttigieg's purported charisma and his one-way feud with Vice President Mike Pence.
Wallace began by hyping Buttigieg's pending endorsement of Joe Biden, "Short of a Barack Obama endorsement, a Pete Buttigieg endorsement is pretty darn good."
She then declared his concession speech to be one of the best of her lifetime, "He gave one of the most eloquent and elegant speeches last night I’ve ever heard for someone coming short of a dream of winning his party's nomination."
Later in the segment, Hillyard looked back on Buttigieg's raise to relevance:
Five years ago this month is when Pete Buttigieg came out to the world he was gay. Three months later is when Mike Pence passed and signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 150 miles down the road from here in Indianapolis and just a summer later, Pete Buttigieg watched Mike Pence run for the vice presidency of the United States and then become vice president. It was at that point he inserted himself in the national conversation, put himself forward.
Despite being members of opposing parties, Pence and Buttigieg appeared to have a close personal and working relationship until Buttigieg decided to run for president, but that didn't prevent Hillyard from adding that, "If there is somebody who has lived, who has experienced the impact of the Trump Administration, can relate to the Midwest, that would be Pete Buttigieg and I think he's quite the surrogate, not just in Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota, but in a lot of these different communities."
Here is a transcript for the March 2 show:
MSNBC
Deadline: White House4:08 PM ET
NICOLLE WALLACE: Short of a Barack Obama endorsement, a Pete Buttigieg endorsement is pretty darn good. He gave one of the most eloquent and elegant speeches last night I’ve ever heard for someone coming short of a dream of winning his party's nomination. How did he arrive at the sequencing of withdrawing from the race last night and making the endorsement as we expect, as other news organizations have reported he's expected to do tonight?
…
VAUGHN HILLYARD: The plan would be to be all in. This is an individual who does not have a job after this. He is now the former mayor and I just want to hit directly to that point. You're playing Chasten's sound, I think is relevant, because look at the context in which Pete Buttigieg grew into relevancy at the national stage. Five years ago this month is when Pete Buttigieg came out to the world he was gay. Three months later is when Mike Pence passed and signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 150 miles down the road from here in Indianapolis and just a summer later, Pete Buttigieg watched Mike Pence run for the Vice Presidency of the United States and then become vice president. It was at that point he inserted himself in the national conversation, put himself forward. If there is somebody who has lived, who has experienced the impact of the Trump Administration, can relate to the Midwest, that would be Pete Buttigieg and I think he's quite the surrogate, not just in Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota, but in a lot of these different communities. He was destined to be in Seattle on Friday. These are communities he's reached and tried to open up to. I think as the first gay man running for President of the United States, there was a staffer yesterday who told me, for him, he stopped me, pulled me aside and said, “Vaugh, I just wish I had had a Pete Buttigieg when I was 12 years old.” It's those stories 78 year-olds maybe are not able to relate to in the same way a 38-year-old young gay man on the national political stage is.
