CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Pete Buttigeig

Interview

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I want to go back to Dana Bash, who is with Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Anderson.

And we talked a little bit about the fact that it didn't really get hot on you until the end of the debate and there was a very crackling moment between you and Senator Klobuchar on the question of experience. Listen to what it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a good example where he has said the right words but I actually have the experience and am leading 11 of the bills that are in that House- passed bill you just referred to.

And I think this kind of experience matters. I have been devoted to this from the time that I got to the Senate and I think having that experience, knowing how you can get things done, leading the bills to take the social media companies to task, a bipartisan bill to say, yes, you have to say where these ads come from and how they're paid for and stop the unbelievable practice, where we still have 11 states that don't have backup paper ballots.

That is my bipartisan bill and I am so close to getting it done. And the way I get it done is if I'm president. But just like I have won statewide and, Mayor, I have all appreciation for your good work as a local official and you did not win your tribe (ph), I also have actually done this work. I think experience should matter.

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-SOUTH BEND, IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So first of all, Washington experience is not the only experience that matters. There's more than 100 years of Washington experience on this stage.

And where are we right now as a country?

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: I have the experience of bringing people together to get something done. I have the experience of being commanded into a war zone by an American president.

I have the experience of knowing what is at stake as the decisions made in those big white buildings come into our lives, our homes, our families, our workplaces and our marriages. And I would submit that this is the kind of experience we need, not just to go to Washington but to change it before it is too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Senator Klobuchar was just in this chair before you got here, saying that she thinks your experience is fine because she had it, you know, a few jobs ago.

What's your response?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, being responsible for the well-being of a population and the conduct of a government the way a mayor or a governor or a president is, is different, I think, than any other experience in public service. I certainly respect the experience that she and all of the people on that stage bring.

But this is a moment I think that calls for something different than the conventional, establishment Washington/Capitol Hill experience. What I was making the case for is what we have had to do, especially if a community like mine -- when I arrived, our poverty rate was pushing 30 percent.

Even basic things that a lot of cities that had more prosperity could count on were not there for us in South Bend. They described us as a dying city.

And now, more than any individual achievement I would point to, we've got a city that believes in itself a different way. So guiding a community through that, I think, is as relevant as any experience you can bring to the office. No job is like the presidency.

But everybody arrives at the presidency with their own experience. And I would say mine of leading a population and a community and, of course, my military experience are as relevant as any to what is needed in the White House today.

BASH: So Senator Klobuchar was asked a question that you weren't asked a follow-up on, so I'm going to do that here, which is what she said on CNN a couple of weeks ago, that, if you were a woman or if there were a woman with your level of experience, you wouldn't even be on anybody's radar.

Do you think that's true?

BUTTIGIEG: I think she's right to point out the effect that sexism has in politics today, not only in politics, also across our society and that's why it is so important to build the economic empowerment of women, the social equality of women. It's why I've proposed that my cabinet will be at least 50 percent women. So I do think she's making an important point.

BASH: You talked a lot, your whole message in your campaign but particularly tonight was preaching unity. You talked about a tender moment, which I'm sure Billy Joel will be very happy about.

But you talk about this but what in your background equips you to be the unifier in chief?

[00:05:00]

BUTTIGIEG: Well, when you are a mayor, you live and breathe a community that is often divided or torn apart by different issues, as we have been in my own city many times. And it's helped me understand the urgency of drawing together people who sometimes have nothing in common, besides the fact that they live in the same city.

When you're in the military, you are put into a difficult situation with people radically different from you, I mean people with different life experiences, definitely different politics, and you come together to get something done.

We need that same unifying spirit in Washington, not because we're all going to agree on everything. That's not the point. But because the presidency needs to be something that belongs to all of us and builds up that sense of belonging in the United States as well as being able to hold together, galvanize, not polarize the majority that we're going to need to govern and to deliver these things on health care, wages, immigration that all of us were talking about.

BASH: One last question. I know you wanted to get the chance to talk about your military experience. In particular, what the president did with regard to pardoning members of the military who were convicted of war crimes.

BUTTIGIEG: Yes, this didn't come up tonight but it is so important because what the president did was overrule and throw out the judgment of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. A military command accused and convicted people of war crimes.

And the president, by saying -- he said something like, you send people into war and these things happen -- became somebody responsible for this image, this idea that there's no difference between a war fighter and a war criminal, which is a slander against veterans. It is not pro-military to suggest that being sent into a conflict

turns you into a war criminal. And those bright lines between what is lawful and not are part of the foundation of military honor as well as military justice.

The president has undermined it. We need a commander in chief who understands what that military honor requires of us and why that military justice should be respected.

BASH: Mayor Pete Buttigieg, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

BUTTIGIEG: Good to be with you.

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