Mayor Pete Pushes Back at Bill Maher for Mocking Concerns Over ‘Woke Stuff’ and ‘Black Voters’
Former South Bend Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg pushed back on Bill Maher when the comic mocked concerns over “woke stuff” and said he was “tired of” hearing about Mayor Pete’s difficulty attracting support from black voters.
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Mayor Pete was the featured interview, and Maher used the opportunity to vent his hostility toward the concerns of marginalized people. Buttigieg would not play along.
Maher described Bernie Sanders’ separation from Elizabeth Warren in the polls, and said Sanders is surging “because Bernie don’t care about that woke stuff. You know?”
Sanders and his team have resisted calls to renounce the endorsement of comic Joe Rogan over his history of racist, misogynist, and transphobic comments, instead embracing it tighter.
“Bernie’s just straight up about the economy, and I think that’s what people care about,” Maher continued, and asked “Would you assess it similarly?”
“Well I think that racial and economic inequality and justice go together,” Buttigieg replied. “What we’ve got to do is make sure that we’re pulling pulling into all the patterns of exclusion that need to change, and when I talk about building a culture of belonging for the country, it’s making sure that people can thrive regardless of where they come from, regardless of their race, and that you can thrive wherever you sit in the economy.”
Maher went on to say “When I said ‘woke,’ I meant at a broad range of issues, but as long as you mentioned this, I just want to say, and again you don’t have to comment on this, but just again as a voter, to the media, I would say one story I’m really tired of is Pete is not connecting with black voters,” Maher said. Buttigieg had not mentioned black voters.
“Yes, I heard that story. Many many times. Get it,” Maher continued, adding “And can we move on and, I worry it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you?”
“Well that’s why it’s so important to do well here on the ground, you know the strongest support that I have among black voters is among the folks who know me best,” Buttigieg said. “In South bend where most of the black elected officials who have made endorsementd are supporting me, and on the ground in Iowa we are seeing a lot of support, but look…”
“There’s black people in Iowa?” Maher said, laughing.
“Absolutely,” Buttigieg said, adding “I mean look, not in the numbers you see in the South, but no absolutely their experience matters, it counts. And look this is really important, this is important nobody is experiencing more of the pain of living under the Trump presidency than communities of color, and that is one of the reasons there’s such an emphasis on making sure that we win. And the process of proving that for all of us begins right here in Iowa, and this is the chance, starting in three days with the caucuses, to demonstrate that I’ve got the kind of campaign organization to succeed and go on and beat Donald Trump.”
Buttigieg has polled consistently in the low single-digits with black voters, but a recent national poll shows he has a positive approval rating, with about two-thirds of black voters having no opinion or haven’t heard of Buttigieg.
Watch the full interview above via HBO.
