Pete Buttigieg touts African-American endorsements that do not exist

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has an endorsement problem.

More specifically, the 2020 Democratic primary candidate keeps padding the list of African-Americans who supposedly support his candidacy to include anyone who so much as comes within striking distance of the former mayor.

On Saturday, a South Carolina newspaper published an opinion article by Buttigieg wherein he claimed his “campaign has proudly partnered with” black-owned businesses in the state, including Diane’s Kitchen in the town of Chester and Atlantis Restaurant in Moncks Corner.

As it turns out, though, the proprietors of those establishments have no idea what the former mayor is talking about.

"I stand for what I stand for and I didn't say I had a partnership," the owner of Diane's Kitchen, Diane Cole, told ABC News.

Cole said she explicitly told Buttigieg representatives prior to the publication of the op-ed that she did not agree to any partnership with him or his campaign. Cole said she never even spoke to Buttigieg when members of his team met privately in her restaurant for a lunch that cost no more than $90. After ABC News contacted her, she received a series of emails from the Buttigieg campaign, one of which misspelled her name, asking her to agree to a position that would match the language of the op-ed. In the end, both parties settled on a statement that reads, “Diane's Kitchen greatly appreciates Pete Buttigieg and his campaign for visiting and supporting my business. We are thankful for their willingness to choose Black owned businesses here in Chester, South Carolina."

Atlantis restaurant owner Wendell Varner said similarly that he never agreed to any sort of “partnership” with the Buttigieg campaign.

"It's a little disheartening to say that – that they would say that we have a partnership with them when we don't," Varner said. "We actually don't support any presidential candidate and we try to stay out of politics as a business entity."

If it were just these two shop owners, this would not be much of a story. Maybe there were genuine misunderstandings between Cole and Varner and Buttigieg’s team. But the fact that the former mayor’s campaign keeps touting non-existent “partnerships,” all while he struggles to attract support from minority voters, gives the distinct impression that his campaign is intentionally misleading voters about the true status of his support in the black community.

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Owning a gun does not disqualify Kamala Harris from running for president

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com georgelcookiii@gmail.com

In the interest of full disclosure let me state that I am not a Kamala Harris supporter but I am a Democrat and as one I will support the winner of the Democratic primary. My purpose of writing this op-ed is to warn all Democrats, both progressive and moderate about ideological purity test hurting the party.

President Lyndon Johnson has been quoted as saying "You know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals only eat their enemies."

That statement is becoming even more true with upcoming 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary which is turning into a battle between moderate and progressives.

That brings me to a USA Today opinion piece written by Progressive Peter Funt who is a writer and host of "Candid Camera." Peter Funt writes that Kamala Harris should be qualified because she owns a gun. The argument he makes is that Harris' gun ownership somehow makes her less credible or hypocritical when it comes to gun control.

Harris owns a gun as someone who was a former prosecutor who had reason to worry about her safety. She keeps the firearm locked up and in a safe place in her home. Funt's arguments is another example of a purity test that doesn't help Democrats win the presidency in 2020.

The fact is many Democrats are okay with gun ownership but what common sense gun laws when it comes to who can own a gun, what types of firearms are legal, and how many guns one person can have. Most of us want laws that will prevent mass shootings and keep our children safe in schools.

Funt's rhetoric not only hurt Harris in this case but Democrats as a whole.

Here are three ways it hurts us Democrats:

1. The op-ed plays right into fringe right-wing fears that Democrats believe no one should own a gun and that the government wants to take their guns. A master charlatan like Trump would capitalize on that to remain, President of the United States.

2. This purity test will disqualify potentially good candidates like Harris, Beto O'Rourke, and Pete Buttigieg who also own guns. I don't think that what anyone wants as we want the best candidate up against Trump.

3. Fighting against gun ownership will hurt Democrats in swing states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. All states that Trump won and that Democrats need to retake the presidency.

I think those are three important reasons to back off the gun purity test.

In closing I would like to state that we as Democrats have to be careful about how candidates and their supporters go after each other during the primary season. The reason being that the winner of the Democratic Party will need to bring the party together after the primary season.

One way to do that is to get former candidates to endorse, and that becomes much harder when people feel that their candidate of choice was unfairly attacked. It also becomes much harder when losing candidates are so damaged by attacks during the primary that they lose credibility to endorse anyone or that their supporters are so angry that they stay home or worse yet vote for a third party candidate.

I don't care if you label yourself as liberal, moderate, or progressive Democrat, at the end of the day we are all Democrats, and we have to stop cannibalizing ourselves, or we will hand Trump a second term.

What's it going to be?

Pete Buttigieg pledges to 'do better' at attracting black voters

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg pledged on Tuesday to do more to reach out to African-American voters, laying out specifics of how he'll address the lack of diversity.

"We need to invite more and more people into the process. We do it through our team and the team that we're building," Buttigieg told CNN's Poppy Harlow and John Avlon on "New Day."

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said he needs to do better when it comes to reaching out to African-American voters and increasing the diversity of the crowd at his campaign events.

"I think we need to do better," Buttigieg told CNN. "As I've been on the trail, we found, to some extent, it depends on geography. We had a very diverse crowd at my first stop in Nevada, but less so in South Carolina. One of the most important things you can achieve in South Carolina is engage with African-American voters in particular, which represents such an important part of our party's coalition."

Buttigieg said his outreach to African-American voters will include ensuring his campaign addresses "issues that disproportionately affect families of color," like housing, income, entrepreneurship and criminal justice reform.

He also plans to reach out to African-American voters by "working to build a diverse team within our organization."

"Some of it is quantity time. Where do you go on these campaign visits? They're very traditional and important places where you can engage in voters of color, from church networks to some of the associations that have built up around the search for justice," Buttigieg said.

"But also, there's a bit of a generational divide here. Younger people of color are less likely to organize in some of the traditional structures that would be true for my parents' generation. And that's where digital organization and reaching into different media venues is going to be important to make those connections."

Asked if he was disappointed that his crowds have not been more diverse, Buttigieg said on Tuesday it means "we've got our work cut out for us."

[SOURCE: CNN]