Is Pete Buttigieg a ‘white Obama’? Joe Biden gets testy amid threat from young rival
- Joe Biden attacks Pete Buttigieg’s relatively thin resume to slow the momentum of the youngest candidate in the Democratic field
- But Buttigieg has struggled to build support with black voters, many of whom would likely support Biden
Joe Biden assailed Pete Buttigieg, refusing to accept comparisons of the young mayor to Barack Obama and unleashing a harsh ad that denigrates Buttigieg’s municipal experience.
Biden, who acknowledged in Friday’s debate that he was unlikely to win Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary against the surging Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, argued Saturday that Buttigieg in particular was ill-equipped to defeat Donald Trump and lead the US as president.
“Oh, come on, man. This guy’s not a Barack Obama,” Biden snapped at a reporter who asked about the comparison.
Yet that precise comparison was made earlier Saturday at a Buttigieg event at Keene State College, where lines of people waiting to get in snaked through the student centre.
Actor Michael J. Fox introduced Buttigieg and said he felt the same way about the former mayor as he did when he first met Obama. Both, he thought, were future presidents.
“I met him, this was early on, and he was just starting to make a splash,” Fox said of Obama.