New Biden Spot Mocks Buttigieg’s Experience, Buttigieg Claps Back

After former Vice President Joe Biden’s dismal 4th place showing in the Iowa caucuses (and I take no joy in writing that), Biden’s campaign is going on the offensive against former Mayor Pete Buttigieg with a direct, negative ad mocking Mayor Pete’s experience as the mayor of a midwestern city. “We’re electing a President,” says the narrator of the spot. “What you’ve done matters.” The ad goes on to contrast Biden’s experience in the Obama administration with Buttigieg’s tenure as mayor: “When President Obama called on him, Joe Biden helped lead the passage of the Affordable Care Act. And when parkgoers called on Pete Buttigieg, he installed decorative lights under bridges, giving citizens of South Bend colorfully illuminated rivers.”

Former Mayor Pete doesn’t think very highly of the Obama-Biden record. Let’s compare. pic.twitter.com/132TB7MHaq

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2020

Shortly after the video was posted, the Buttigieg campaign clapped back. From the Buttigieg campaign:

At this moment, the American people are crying out for something completely different from this classic Washington-style of politics.

While Washington politics trivializes what goes on in communities like South Bend, South Bend residents who now have better jobs, rising income, and new life in their city don’t think their lives are a Washington politician’s punchline.

Pete’s on-the-ground experience as mayor, turning around a Midwestern industrial city, is exactly why he is running for president.

The vice president’s decision to run this ad speaks more to where he currently stands in this race than it does about Pete’s perspective as a mayor and veteran.

Biden and his team have said they expect to lose New Hampshire but hope to regain its footing in South Carolina and Nevada later this month. The current RealClearPolitics average of polls in New Hampshire shows Sen. Bernie Sanders averaging 26.4%, Buttigieg at 22.2%, Biden at 12.6% and Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 12.2%.