With the free cspan radio app. Democratic president ial buttigieg,mayor pete is interviewed by president obamas chief of staff. [applause] [cheers] thank you. Gieg mayor, welcome back. You were here in february before you actually became an official candidate. I see you are playing bigger rooms now. Mayor buttigieg seems that way. Do you ever stop and say to yourself, how did this happen . Mayor buttigieg a little bit. At that time, you were essentially an asterisk. Mayor buttigieg well, maybe a little more than that. Plus re an asterisk were an asterisk plus. You are one of a flock of many, small town mayor, young guy, so on, and now you are a contender. Would have you learned about the country what have you learned about the country . What have you learned about yourself in the journey from here to there . Mayor buttigieg you arrive resenting something that is different if you are not like the others and you can get your ideas across, that anything can happen. We did not know. I believed, but did not actually have any way of knowing as of january or february if we did this that we could build a following, that we could get the resources that we needed to compete, and that we could attract a movement. From the announcement in april the debates, we have been able to advance past the first 20 or so of my competitors. There are a few of the biggest hills to climb ahead. For all of the problems, and there are many in our system, there is still some level in which the system makes it possible for people to break through. I mean, the idea that a 30 south bend,ay, indiana mayor would even be taken seriously was a bit of a leap. I also think it tells us about the moment we are in. Frankly, somebody like me doing Something Like this probably would not have gotten this far at any other moment in the history of their public. T describe the moment tha you think makes it possible. Mayor buttigieg i think it is a moment where a lot of our assumptions, orthodoxies, and rules have been shattered or at least called into question by the emergence of donald trump. A lot of them are going to have to reassert themselves. The idea is that there are no rules. Some roles have been broken arent no rules. Some rules have been broken. There is a desire for something that is really new and different , and yet, not new and different in the way the current presidency is new and different. But rather, a response to the fact that we are in between moments in american history. I think we are in one of those moments that is hard to read precisely because it falls in between chapters. I would date the current era coming to an end to the election of ronald reagan, roughly the time i was born. That has gone on really for 40 years. I think democratic and republican behavior has played within certain boundaries, of, you can call it the reagan era, neoliberal era, washington consensus. Now it has blown up over trump, who is both a symptom and a cause of this unraveling. Now we have to figure out whats coming next. An accountved with of where america is and what you want to do, people will hear you the even if you dont have traditional credentials of a mainstream president ial candidate. Trump obviously looms large over all this. What do you think his affect is . When you talk to people, there is this big debate about, is as time for bold d,izabeth warren says bol structural change, or is it a time to heal the country and restore some sense of calm and common purpose and some of the things that have been shattered . What do you hear when you are out there . Mayor buttigieg i hear both. You are a politician, are nt you . Mayor buttigieg this is really important. This is why im running. We have to have a bold change because the failures of our system is what got us here. A guy like a donald trump should not have been able to come within a cheating distance of the oval office, should not have been able to take over either one of americas to parties two parties. It reflects the failure of our system to keep up and deliver for people and the failure of our system to really make everyday life better in america, which is why we need a row changes. It is also real changes. It is also the case that we need to heal. I am thinking not just about the need to and Trump Presidency end the Trump Presidency, but im also thinking of what its going to be like the day after the Trump Presidency. Maybe for half of the day, but then really think about what we will be up against at this point. None of these problems will have gone away, the problems he excluded in order to become president. They are not taking a break for exploited inr order to become president. They are not taking a break for impeachment. Thanksgiving dinners will be a minefield. Our communities will be that much more afraid and pitted against each other. A big part of the job of the presidency is to get people together across all of that. I am not saying this in some , lets forget all of our differences and we are all just going to get along kind of weight. We have way. We have to at least agree we are part of the same country kind of weight. The president kind of way. Can uniquely help make that possible. The premise of my campaign is, we can enact very bold reforms ad also do it in a americancan unify an majority, unamerican majority thats with us an american majority thats with us issue after issue. You talk about where we will be the day after and thats assuming that hes not president , and he could be president. Not, there is this theory that and its sort of based inexperience that he might not go quietly based on experience that he might not go quietly and that he may raise doubts about the process and that he will stir his base to a questionable legitimacy of an election. Lets imagine you are the president. How do you deal with that . What are the things that would have to be done to reassure people about the responsiveness of our institutions and to invest people with a sense of kind of common purpose, even as we have differences . Mayor buttigieg i think the work that has to go on right away is to make sure our institutions actually reflect us. Not that we have majority popular rule on every decision but there should be some resemblance on the decisions being made and what the American People want. The issue behind every issue is democracy, the fact that districts are drawn where politicians affectively choose their voters. Certainly, the role of money in politics. I would argue the existence of the Electoral College itself. All of these antidemocratic qualities, some of them that have been there all along, some newark that have been used to grind our systems responsiveness some are newer, that have been used to grind our systems responsiveness to a halt. You think you would restore unity by moving to eliminate the Electoral College . Mayor buttigieg i think it is one example of no, this is important. Think about this. If we had a National Popular vote, we would all be dissipated in the same election for president , which is not true right now. Theeed to stitch together way our community problemsolving process has worked all the way through up to the national level. I am under no illusion that we can get a National Popular vote overnight. Part of what i am trying to do is elevate our ambition a little bit about democratic structure. It is so clear that our democratic structures dont work. Perversely, even though he is making them worse, i think that trumps arrival largely reflects a sense of frustration about those structures. For example, in his campaign, he said the elections are rigged. N one sense, that was a lie in another sense, if the outcome of a congressional race is effectively predetermined by gerrymandering, than in a certain, very transparent way, that is true. The things that he was saying that were not true often aligned with something that was true and tapped into this more general desire i think to burn the house down. Which is why all of the racism, misogyny and xenophobia in his campaign found fertile ground. It is this legal mix. If lethal mix. If our institutions continue to be this nonfunctional, i really think that no matter how clever the policies we come up with, we will continue to see this disconnect that will empower whoever is the loudest and promises most convincingly that they are going to burn the house down. I am interested in what you hear when you are out campaigning. You meet with people all over the country. You spend a lot of time in iowa. How often does Electoral College reform and redistricting and those things come up as opposed job security . , mayor buttigieg its more likely to be about that. Health care, for sure. And its not just the things that are debated constantly, but also things that have not made it as much into the debates, like the simple fact of affordability. How Prescription Drugs are paid for, the cost side of things. That is clearly a big issue. There is a sense that even though the economy is being described as good, it is harder and harder not just to get ahead, but to hold on to what we have got. A lot of folks are finding their pay is level, may be a little bit, but nowhere near the growth in cost of retirement, health, and education. There is this desire to know that housing will work on that, certainly housing. These are the things i hear about. A little bit more on things like impeachment. I was going to ask about how much you care about that. Obviously such a focus of a lot of the News Coverage, but it is not the focus of the interactions you are having with voters by and large. Mayor buttigieg in a day full of campaign events, i would hear it may be once across the date. Now i hear it may be once per event. Outoure trying to figure to me, politics is about how the decisions made in washington that was a staffer. [laughter] mayor buttigieg i know these tricks. Politics is about whether your life will go different if i am president versus someone else. I actually think that will be true of democratic reforms i am pursuing. For example, your lives would be very different if we had a National Popular vote in the sense that you would have had a clinton instead of Trump Presidency and a gore instead of a bush presidency. More to what is on your mind right now. These are the things that will propel so many of the decisions being made. When i was in the white house and the economy was recovering we alwaysawful crash, struggled because there were signs of progress in the macroeconomy, the people were not feeling it in their lives. The president touts, as you would advise he probably should, that unemployment is at a 50 year low and some of these other macroeconomic signs. But people are not feeling it. Sometimes when you push too hard on that, it actually creates a backlash where people say, maybe its good somewhere, but i dont feel it. Mayor buttigieg Life Expectancy in the United States is going down. How is it even possible to have gdp going up and Life Expectancy going down at the same time . It tells you something about where the Economic Growth is going and whether it is making us better off. I dont want to leave your own experience as a candidate. You are talking to some students earlier were talking to some students earlier. You are asked, what most surprised you about this . You talked about the physical toll of campaigning. You seem reasonably fit. Talk about it. Mayor buttigieg it is physically demanding in a way that i did not understand getting into it. As somebody watching News Coverage of candidates, i never really believed them when they said it is a grueling process, but now i get it. It is hard to explain exactly why. Something about the constancy of sheertion and just the number of places you go and things you do in a day, it demands a lot of you. This is also the answer to the question on age that has been surfaced, sometimes in some kind of indecent ways. Obviously, i think there is value in a new generation as the youngest candidate. If you can survive a president ial election, then you have the energy i think required. I think thats right. I think its a gauntlet. I think campaigns are auditions for the role. Can you run all the events . Physicaleet the demands of it . Dot of it is, the better you you are doing better now, and now the things you say and do actually get a lot more attention, which creates more pressure. Mayor buttigieg yeah. People are quicker to point out anything that they think you did wrong. Its only going to get worse, brother. Im just telling you. Mayor buttigieg but the pressure is healthy. Atemulates the pressure that a different scale the president will experience. It allows you to demonstrate what you are made of. Know, im partly dating myself here. The scene in officer and a intleman when they put him a low oxygen environment and they have to do this simple task involving plane parts. They become stupid because theyre not getting oxygen. I think thats how the president ial campaign process is. [laughter] encouraging for the republic. Mayor buttigieg in the sense that when you see somebody, for example, a candidate do something and say, that was really dumb. I could have known better than to say or do that. Thats probably true. The question is, if that were the 17th time in a one hour space that you had to do some kind of task of that complexity, could you still have done it . Thats where i think candidates get tired or rebuild their weaknesses. It is not any one of the things that you are doing that is hard, it is doing all of them at once every day for two years. Thats how you think you are dating yourself. When i say i am dating myself, i mention casablanca. Mayor buttigieg you see how few heads nodded when i mentioned the movie. I had to explain seinfeld to somebody. May be your best moment in the debate came in your discussion from the perspective of someone who has worn the uniform of the country, your reaction to whats taken place in syria since that time. Your old friend, Vice President pence from indiana, was dispatched to turkey and unagreement was reached an agreement was reached at really seemed like a kind of capitulation. And evaluate where you think we are at and with the ramifications of it are. Mayor buttigieg it is incredibly disturbing, because first of all, the outcomes on the ground are troubling. It was essentially turkey getting its way. We have a very little indications of what the longterm implications will be when it comes to ethnic cleansing of the current and potential reemergence of isis. Beyond all of the things happening on the ground, there is permanent damage to american credibility. That hurts so much as a veteran is to think about all of the people who around the world, as we speak, are putting their lives on the line because they think aligning themselves with america is a good idea. That often requires a lot of courage. I remember being deployed, not only the Afghan National army folks you would see, but just everyday workers. Would swap guy who i stories with. He would teach me afghan. Because you dont speak enough linkages . Norwegian doesnt work there . Usefuluttigieg not very at all because norwegians speak better english than we do. His job basically was just to clean up this building. To know him and we bonded by discussing born because he was part of Taiwan Province where they grew corn and im from indiana where they grow a lot of more. He gave us something to relate to. He was explaining how his family was vulnerable to kidnap threats and would be much more so if anyone in the village figured he is risking his life by americans. H if i were to go over there now, i dont know how i could look him in the i, after what we just did. That is going to cost us in so many ways that we have not seen yet. There would be allies that could be doing things precisely so that we dont have to send troops in somewhere who now dont even want to talk to us. If we are not a credible ally, we have stripped our own Service Members of their honor. A lot of the comments coming back from interviews with special operators who are out there is the level of shame they feel. If you take away the honor of the servicemen, there is very little left, i think. That is my this is so disturbing. Is not just that it is a terrible poly decision, its that it will take decades to recover the credibility that was blown up for no really good strategic reason. Its not like the president was faced with an anguishing choice where there is no way to honor one value without betraying another. Tot live up to a promise one ally without undercutting another. You dont think he went through that process . Mayor buttigieg the word process doesnt like it could apply here. [laughter] for so long, especially with my conservative friends, the debate of whether whether he is a modest man ended a long, go. Somewhere along the way, the debate shifted from whether he was a good leader to whether it mattered. He is loose with the truth, as sometimes folks will very gently put it, but how much is that really going to matter in washington . The deadly consequences of a president who doesnt know what he is doing, doesnt keep his word. And as far as i can tell, doesnt care. People die when that happens, and people are dying right now. Me just ask you as a you have question, talked about the need to end in list wars. That is the argument he has made , this is not our problem, it is 7000 miles away. Audience foran that, will he not, with some members of americans . Mayor buttigieg it is a perverse argument. A tiny number of u. S. Troops, a few dozen, were able to stand between that region and the things we are seeing now, genocide and the reemergence of isis. Just by having a few people there. Oft is so ironic, for those us who think we have to get out of afghanistan, you have a skeletal presence of special operators with intelligence gathering capability, just enough to keep america safe and to stand between place and the worst possible outcome, not an open ended and large number of ground troops. This is exactly what we had in syria, and he took it away. You can see the consequences of , he hashis tiny number unleashed something that we may be dealing with for years. Lets go back to this issue of bold, structural change. Senator warren has an array of largescale proposals that deal with inequality and some of the in thissues that people room probably care deeply about. He challenged her in the debate has borrowede she a proposal from senator sanders. And why washat important to you to challenge her on that. What do you think we learned and what we should think about that . Mayor buttigieg the reason i think this is important is rooted in my experience as mayor, when you say things in a campaign and they put you in charge and you actually have to deliver them. I think anybody who allows the phrase medicare for all to escape their lips and Campaign Season has responsibility to explain what it would actually take to get there. It is striking that only nice visibility issue, the current Democratic Front runner has not detailed how it would work, senatoran to speak to sanders plan. The concern there is that it effectively means within four everybody on a private plan loses them. There is a big hole in how it is supposed to be paid for. Is so i think it important to illustrate this difference is i am convinced that we can get that same goal of getting everybody delivered. Its not like him proposing some little technical tweet. Im proposing the biggest reform to health care in this country in 5060 years. Medicare for all who wants it is what i call it. If you want to keep your private plan, thats ok. How would you finance that . Mayor buttigieg the great way of having great thing about doing it this way is you can do it without tax increases on the middle class. We will have to rollback the trump tax cuts and close loopholes on corporate taxes, but these are things we should be doing anyway, because i dont think those tax cuts would happen in the first place. To imwould have not saying we dont have to come up with revenue, but im also committed to making sure that everything we propose, in my explain what the revenue is going to be, because i think deficits matter. Republican said they cared about deficits, especially when they were trying to stop us from investing in anything. Then they took power. It turns i, they dont care. Numeral kratz dont even get into the business of worrying about these fiscal questions and nobody cares about it. Your playing fear, the more likely these fiscal time bombs can go off on your watch. You could hand me a piece of paper and say heres what it will cost and heres how it would be paid for. We areuttigieg continuing to keep score for every promise that i make. I think our Prescription Drug plan will be budget positive because there will be savings to treasury when we are negotiating with Pharma Companies on the price of drugs. The important thing here is, this is what americans actually want. Here you have a majority of americans backing an extremely bold progressive reform, only for some of my competitors to say that weve got to do something further that most americans dont want. Do you think that could cost the election . Mayor buttigieg it certainly wont help. A lot of the people, including democrats, would tell a pollster they are for medicare for all. They are forn is medicare for all but they get to keep their plan if they wanted. Somewhere course of last year it became the case that medicare version. As to be there to me, the way to get everybody still care is, one that allows you to have private plans if you want. I think the more people that discovered that her vision keep that away from you. The more trouble were going to have. Are there other issues that can help create those problems . Mayor buttigieg there is a big american majority for a lot of major, progressive reforms. Come at this in terms of what the Economic Policy is. College, weout should absolutely make it free for low income and middle income students. But those trustees children, should they go to college, i think they can pay their own tuition. I dont think we need to make it free for absolutely anybody. Think that is a better policy. I also think it speaks to an allergy among a lot of americans to the sense that we are going too far in the direction of free things, because of course, i thing is free. A resistance to this word of free. This is my clinical analysis, based on some years in this work, is that there is a sense that people should have skin in the game. Its sort of interesting. I was talking to the governor from rhode island about this, and she had a branding issue because she wanted to make Community College free. But the word free was offensive to some people. Let me ask you about your own progress here. Youre making obvious progress in iowa, which is where this whole process began. What do you have to do there to keep your momentum going . Mayor buttigieg i think three things matter. One is whether you have the resources to just go the distance, because these operations are expensive. Weve got that. The next thing is to have a message that is resonating. Islandse still a lot of been making their lives. They are not following everything blowbyblow, they have stuff going on. Will press said that we won the steak fry, im sure we were a cattle call. There is no objective measurement for how you win the state fry. To file a lot of tickets and when a lot of supporters, which is what you guys did. Mayor buttigieg reason that matters is the organization that you are test driving is the same organization is going to be on the night before crocodiles. This is a key moment for obama as a candidate. Some of the other candidates may follow away. It will become a much crisper set of choices. Thatbeing said, i believe possibly even a majority of voters wont really make up their mind until the last 10 days. Which is not unusual in the iowa caucuses. If you get to new hampshire, you seem well positioned to do well there. Now youre getting two states with large members of africanamerican voters. Carolina is important in the sequence. You are doing really well with africanamerican voters. An asterisk would be close to surprised two describing your support there. Why do you think that is . Ther buttigieg one of things that is clear, we get a great response when i am addressing majority black audiences about our agenda. There are also a lot of folks, especially in a place like South Carolina, who want to feel like they really understand you and know you. So our challenge and our task is to build that familiarity very quickly. The former Vice President has an overwhelming advantage, but i think one of two things is true. He has thes because best answers on the subject of raced or because of that familiarity. Other candidates can build that trust by making clear what we stand for. That is our pathway forward. Other thing is, youve got to show you can win. This is especially important for both voters who are skeptical of newcomers. A big part of how you can be viable in South Carolina is to prove it in a place like iowa. You to elements of this. The first is, you had significant turbulence in your campaign earlier in the year because of the Police Involved shooting in south bend. Thatuch do you think retired your ability to grow, and you had an unwelcome story. Oday you were speaking at a fundraising event. Money. To return that should that have happened . Not, buttigieg it should and as soon as i found out about it just to be clear, the reason it is such a concern im sorry, i have filled in the blank. Withholding a tape of the Quan Mcdonnell shooting. Mayor buttigieg especially as the mayor of a city that has had a lot of issues with committee relations, i believe is aparency and justice lot more important than campaign contributions. I learned about it this morning. One of the things about raising money is you then have to put it in an infrastructure to evaluate potential donors to avoid stories like this, so this is a growing pains story. Mayor buttigieg that is not an unfair way to put it. We started this campaign with four people in january as an exploratory committee. We have at least 100 times that. This is important, because it reflects on the campaign. People roughly 600,000 who have contributed to the campaign. When somebody contributes, especially to substantial level, you have to make sure you have gone through those steps to make sure you dont regret accepting it. Getting back to the main issue, you had an event in brownsville which is predominantly an Africanamerican Community. I want to ask your really sensitive question, i remember from the Marriage Equality resistance the most amonge face was democratic coalitions, was among older africanamerican voters. You are the first openly gay candidate for president , and how much of a barrier is that for you, and how do you overcome that . Mayor buttigieg its there. I think there is a process going on in the black community in general, the africanamerican churches in particular, around this. But i can think about it in terms of its effect on me as much as its effect on lgbt youth of color, who often really rely on their church as a place to go for help in difficult times. It is in the name of compassion toward youth who really need their churches to be there for them that a lot of progress is currently happening on this issue. Hear, the concerns i because i think you took a big step forward in that debate, and people are beginning to look at you and say, maybe this is possible, but the concern you hear from people is knowing the way the trump operation works, that he will weaponize this and try to recharge turnout particularly in the Africanamerican Community in races that could be marginal. Goingbuttigieg they are to find something to weaponize against every campaign, and if there isnt something there, they are going to make it up. But this race should not be close. Do all kindsg to of nefarious things. Of course they are. I think theres a microphone in the balcony and there will be here comes the microphone. Is there one in the balcony . Side over here. Wherever you are closes, lineup. Liveou see saturday night last saturday . [laughter] it was not really fair, was it . You guys must have been mayor buttigieg i think we lived in the same dorm. You do to him that made him so mad . Mayor buttigieg it is all in good fun. If you are being played on snl, obviously something must be going right. I am a secondyear medical student here at chicago. Racial gap is, the is due to a hundred years of slavery and discrimination. What are you you going to do specifically to close that gap . Mayor buttigieg if you take a legacy of racist policies and structures and replace them with neutral ones, its not going to lead to equality. We have learned that the hard way. If you stop and think about it, its very clear why. Of compoundn terms interest. If you save a dollar, turns into two dollars and then four and then eight. One dollar at 5 becomes 1000. Its also true of dollars stolen. When not just a dollar or number of dollars, but the entire Economic Life of people has been stolen in generational theft going back to 1619, this is not something that will just correct itself, it compounds. The fact that some of these harms have been hundreds of years ago doesnt make it better, it makes it worse. Add to that the fact that some of these harms did not happen hundreds of years ago. The de facto exclusion from the , housing policies, within the lifetime of my parents, segregated neighborhoods that started out integrated at the beginning of the century, these intentionally and through government compounded inequities that led to the racial income gap. I am a supporter of hr 42, investigative preparations. That conversation needs to happen. I have proposed the douglas plan. Its named after frederick douglass, who demanded that our move closer toward living up to its professed ideals. I think we should name it after we couldo reminds us be as ambitious as the Marshall Plan but lets invest right here at home. When it comes to problems like racial inequity, im also really focused on solutions. Solutions coming from within the black communities private im proposing that the federal government have a 25 goal for business is led by people who have been historically excluded. We are proposing an initiative that would provide a debt for jobs guarantee. A lot of peaceable a lot of people face what is informally called a black tax. Based on the fact that an entrepreneur of color is likely to expect to find relatives and support family members because of that same wealth gap you were talking about. Access to credit is another big piece that needs to be reformed. Whether we are talking about criminal justice, because having a parent incarcerated make someone less likely to meet their potential later on. To a new Voting Rights act and homeownership, all these things are tied together. Because the disparity is systemic, the solution has to be systemic, too. There is a lot more on the website, but these are some of the measures we need to undertake. The last thing i would add is that there is a conversation that needs to happen among white americans. This cannot be something that is only raised as a sort of specialty topic for black audiences. Frankly, it is important to not only hear about this from candidates of color. ,ecause her has to be a way without arousing some of the defensiveness that a lot of people have, to talk about how everyone is indicated in this the restorative process to make it better in our lifetime. I am a second year english major and i just like asking cool people what their favorite novels are. Not political, but if you want to give me some book recs. Mayor buttigieg i improve that you can study literature and then have a job. Ulysses is the ultimate personal and political novel that explains a lot. About it being about complicated things. Read giovannis room by james baldwin, a very timely novel. Just dipping into a history of rome. Its about how republics die. Its a little grim. [laughter] one of the things and there is when the consensusbuilding institutions are ground to a halt for constructionists purposes, thats one of the symptoms of republics beginning to die. There is a book called finnish nightmares. Is core tunes evoking cartoons evoking socialist nightmares, which for some reason i can relate to. Those would be my picks for the moment. Over here. Gieg perhaps you want to ask about film. Nice to talk to you, mr. Mayor. My question is related to the Police Tensions with the city of south bend. I think it is a legitimate claim with your comments about all lives matter. If you could speak on those a little bit more. Mayor buttigieg i am mayor of a Diverse Community that has a past and complex relationship between communities of color, an officer sworn to keep them safe. One of the toughest moments in that relationship came early in my tenure. Interviewed three candidates to be my police chief and wound up selecting an africanamerican cheap who had served under my predecessor. Later on we got a visit from federal investigators about an investigation going into some of his actions and things that were going on at the Police Department related to wiretapping of other officers. I reached a conclusion, and parts of these parts of this are still being adjudicated, but i reached a conclusion i cannot have him continue to serve in that role. I had found out from federal investigators, it was a trust issue in our relationship. The concern that followed from that, and a lot of pain in the community, really demonstrated to me in ways that before i had only understood in. Some things that are distinct in a relationship with the police. While there has been a lot of good work done in terms of example,re that, for we empower citizens to weigh in on policies. We built a transparency portal so they can look up what is going on with cases of use of force. People understand what is happening under the hood. Efforts that some of which are still a struggle, especially post ferguson, recruiting minority officers, but some things have worked very well. The level of accountability has really rosen really risen on my watch. It hasnt been perfect, but every step we have taken we have done together. And it helps me understand what is at stake about Racial Equity and policing. During the obama administration, i could reach out to the white house for help. Have a doj that has made it abundantly clear that civil rights is not its priority. Forhanges a lot of things departments that need to be enforced on when it comes to civil rights, and to two apartments that are trying to do the right thing and are on their own, to the point that we have been willing to engage people who had worked in the Previous Department of justice to help us because we know we are not going to get help from washington today. So those are some of the steps that can be taken. Issues are going to be with us for a long time. I can promise that i have walked through the community and understand what is at stake to getting it right. Im going to go back up the other way, so go ahead. I am a firstyear poly sigh major. Im really interested in terms and issues that straddle political and actual reality. For example, someone who lives by the Mexican Border might feel that immigrants are taking their jobs. May not have a beach we can run on. In the election that unites us. The twod of shocking, different realities that people live in. Mayor buttigieg the best we can do is connected to realities on the ground. The great example for this is the political trajectory of the Affordable Care act. It2010, we got killed over because it was all in theory. People believed it. The winningwas issue for democrats. It actually happen, and people realize they were better off. Toughest social are doing a lot better. Did t undock you undocumented immigrant who was a businessman deported. People were furious that he was deported. It was a great concern in part of our county. All these people were demanding i do something to stop this, which of course i could not. They were conservative republicans. His wife voted for donald trump, because they really didnt see it as something that would affect someone like him. You could say, what do you expect . You just didnt see this coming. Talk in terms of actual lived experiences, the stronger we get. I know plenty of people who think there was a busload of undocumented immigrants boating somewhere, but i have never met one person who thinks it happened at their polling place. I think it is exactly for this reason that the president wants us thinking about things that are far off and strange. Life, ifroblem in your you are sitting at home trying to figure out how to pay bills and that you are not getting , we need to make even ifhat tether youre in a place where democrats have been in a defensive crouch, like guns. While most people dont personally have the experience of being worried about your kids going to school. If our nominee has enough discipline to keep his experience at the center of the message even as all these other things happen around us. My name is daniel. I am an american jew and it is important to me that israels occupation of the palestinian have 4. 8 million palestinians who are living under the authority of the and over whom they cannot exercise any accountability. To me this is despicable in terms of the jewish principles of love and humanness that i was raised on. You said in the past you believe the occupation must end, and im glad we agree. Than 3u. S. Sends more million so there is a deep complicity in this nation. It is clear that we need real action. My question is, will you make aid to israel contingent on it since to the occupation completely . Think it isieg i leveraged to guide us in the right direction. If for example, around the one of of annexation, the shocking things to me about the absence of American Leadership under the Trump Administration is not just what is happening among our butrsaries or competitors, our allies. Turkey is also a nato ally. Saudi arabia is doing things that i dont think wouldve been permitted before. I think the same is true with israel. I believe it is important. Is in theieve it American Interest as well as the palestinian and ultimately israeli and jewish interests not reach adoes state where it has to be eitheror. There is a trajectory going toward that right now. Allnot going to connect to the different ways that leverage can and should be used, but i will say that our policy call will be to do what we do when a friend is moving away that you are worried about, which is to put your arm around your friend and guide them to somewhere better. We have a bunch of other people here. I am a citizen of the choctaw nation of obama. Mayor buttigieg thank you first one thing im very proud of is the first time federally recognized Indian Country came to the state of indiana was in south bend. It was in the context of a 30 year struggle on their part but also a Longtime Partnership with the first nation in our area. I learned a lot about tribal sovereignty. All, a lot of trouble citizens who had fallen out of the tribal protection of sovereignty. There is also chronic underfunding of the Indian Health service. There has been a failure to recognize how things impact tribal lands. When i visited the Obama White House is there, it was clear that there was a relationship with mayors and cities and with states. It is considered a natural part of intragovernment relations. We need the white house to recognize this in the structure and practice as long as as well as its policies. They are extremely important for tribal citizens. We have a lot of obligations built up over a long time. Questions. Studyingourthyear Public Policy and statistics. I want to ask what differentiates you and why do you think you have a better policy . Mayor buttigieg there are a number of features and you can see more of it online, but i will mention a few things that i think are important. One is our approach on affordability. We make sure there is a cap on how much of your income, what premiums, and also the subsidies to make it possible for anyone to afford coverage. Philosophically, i would like for this to guide us toward medicare for all in a singlepayer environment. Its just that i think we need a little bit of humility to discover by doing, whether that is going to be the right answer for everybody instead of requiring everybody to embrace it. The public alternative is going to be better. But i dont want to risk other Peoples Health care on behalf of us having gotten it right in washington. It is important for us to create this alternative. If the private sector comes up with Better Things than they have now, fine. But the important principle is not that the government be your new insurer. The important principle is they will get coverage one way or the other. But that is a fielders choice, who feels they are just adding features onto the framework. I am a student in the law school. I have a question about this report, and i thought some of your ideas are pretty interesting. I think there is concern that any new Supreme Court scheme could threaten the independence of the court and maybe open the ,oor for more partisanship maybe the republicans will come up with their own Court Packing scheme. I just wanted you to elaborate on some of your Creative Ideas you have floated and any and how serious you are about them. The idea ofieg reforming the Supreme Court is not to make it more liberal. Thats not what structural reform should be about. On the contrary, the purpose should be to make it less politicized. That is fly if we are going to expand the number of members in one third of the court can only be submitted by of theus consensus others. The other five can only be seated by unanimous agreement of the other 10. Im not smart enough to have thought of this on my own. Theres an article about why this is something that could be achieved without a constitutional amendment. That is probably the most ambitious report. Been bothered by the term limits. Another thing is to rotate people off the appellate bench. I think we need a sense of urgency around the form. And we need to remind ourselves that reform is an option. Would argue that the Republican Senate changed the panel to eight until we got power. It has also been reformed and much healthier ways. The 1970s,y as there were and constitutional memories happening all the time. E. R. A. Ndments like the it had very good consequences in terms of things like why dont not like title ix. The political structures have not kept up with the times. That calls into question whether the United States has the right number of states or if the Supreme Court has the right number of justices. Maybe whether the u. S. House has the right number of representatives. To make government more responsive before its unresponsiveness leads to pathologies even more disturbing than the Trump Presidency. Did you say whether you guys went to the right number of states . I think we are all set on our side of stateline, really. It would not be the smallest state if it became a state, but the most africanamerican state. That is an example. I dont think we should wait on that. Is, there are some basic structural things that we use to revisit from time to time in the country. We just lost the muscle memory to do it over the last few years or so. So i think it is time for new season of structural democracy. Welet me say how much appreciate you being here. I want to say to all of you how much i appreciate you all being here. This will be an enormously , now wential election have a campuswide effort. Our hope is that everyone on this campus registers and boats and participates. The decision that will be made this year is going to impact dramatically on the quality of life and the future of our country that you are going to live this. Your line about when you are as old as the current chief is . Mayor buttigieg i want to be able to look at look back at 2020 and say that is when things started to get better. In these years coming up right now, we will decide whether our , whether systemic racism out, whether we can build an economy that actually works for everybody. These things are about to get worked out for us. This will go down as one of the most common consequential times in history of the republic. Boldness, and i just refused to accept that boldness means crushing everyone into submission. Boldness means having answers that are going to work and gathering that majority to get it done. It is all up to you, but no pressure. Thank you very much. [applause] live friday night, two candidates challenging President Trump for the republican nomination. The conversation with former governor bill weld and congressman mark sanford talk about the plans, strategies, and why they are running against the president. They will also be taking your calls, tweets, and facebook comments. 8 00 p. M. E friday at eastern on cspan. Andh any time on cspan. Org listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage from the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Senator Bernie Sanders held a rally in queens, new york, his first since suffering a heart attack less than three weeks ago. Joining him at the event is new york congresswom