MANCHESTER, N.H. ― Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) unloaded on her fellow 2020 Democratic presidential rival Pete Buttigieg on Friday, calling into question his electability by suggesting he was too inexperienced to take on President Donald Trump.
At the eighth Democratic presidential primary debate here on Friday, Klobuchar gave a shoutout to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his vote to convict Trump for abuse of power in the Senate impeachment trial and then criticized Buttigieg for comments he made last week about the proceedings.
“I don’t know about you, but watching the news right now, watching the impeachment coverage, watching the Senate is exhausting,” Buttigieg had said at a campaign stop in Iowa. “I live and breathe politics and I find it exhausting, it’s just, it gets you down, and makes you want to watch cartoons instead.”
Klobuchar, who was present in Washington for the more than two-week impeachment trial, lambasted that sentiment.
“You said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons,” Klobuchar said, telling Buttigieg that the remark may have made him look “like a cool newcomer” but that it wasn’t appropriate.
“I don’t think that’s what people want right now. We have a newcomer in the White House and look what that got us,” she said.
Buttigieg acknowledged his lack of experience in government but argued that he had more to offer than those who work in the “big white buildings in Washington, D.C.,” citing his military service overseas. “We need a perspective right now that will finally allow us to leave the politics of the past in the past, turn the page, and bring change to Washington before it’s too late,” he said.
Buttigieg arguably had one of the biggest targets on his back on Friday. The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, finished in a near-tie in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, and several polls have shown him surging in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s primary Tuesday night.