Pete Buttigieg in South Carolina: America ‘Was Never as Great as Advertised’

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg took a jab at President Trump on Monday while delivering a speech in South Carolina, saying America’s past “was never as great as advertised.”

“So many of the solutions, I believe, are gonna come from our communities. Communities like the one where I grew up, which is an industrial mid-western city,” the former South Bend, Indiana mayor stated. “That is exactly the kind of place that our current president targeted with a message saying that we could find greatness by just stopping the clock and turning it back.”

“That past that he is promising to return us to was never as great as advertised, especially for marginalized Americans… and there’s no going back anyway.”

In April, Buttigieg called for abolishing the death penalty and called for reparations for the descendants of slaves.

“It is time to face the simple fact that capital punishment as seen in America has always been a discriminatory practice. We would be a fairer and safer country when we join the ranks of modern nations who have abolished the death penalty,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg previously said he considers reparation payments for slavery descendants to be an “important issue.”

“The country as a whole is effectively segregated by race and the resources are different. There is a direct connection between exclusion in the past and exclusion in the present,” Buttigieg explained.