Pete Buttigieg gets trolled by ‘Black Voters Matter’ activists as he tries to march with striking fast food workers to a Charleston McDonald’s while chasing crucial African-American support
- Pete Buttigieg marched in solidarity with striking fast food workers in Charleston, South Carolina Monday
- His appearance attracted about a dozen members of the group ‘Black Voters Matter’
- They shouted through Buttigieg’s appearance, chanting ‘Pete can’t be our president, where was $15 in South Bend?’
Pete Buttigieg was trolled by ‘Black Voters Matter’ activists as he tried to march in support of giving fast food workers a $15 minimum wage while campaigning in Charleston, South Carolina Monday.
Buttigieg was front and center as striking workers – dressed to match the ‘Golden Arches’ in red and yellow – marched to a McDonald’s in the southern city. The group even paraded through the restaurant’s drive-thru.
But Buttigieg’s appearance attracted its own protest, as a group of ‘Black Voters Matter’ demonstrators chanted ‘Pete can’t be our president, where was $15 in South Bend?’ in the direction of the 2020 Democratic candidate.
Pete Buttigieg joined a group of fast food workers who were marching Monday in Charleston, South Carolina, in an effort to be able to unionize and get a $15 minimum wage
Pete Buttigieg had to shout through is remarks because a group of ‘Black Voters Matter’ activists showed up to the union demonstration and heckled him
The group of Black Voters Matter demonstrators are on a bus tour of South Carolina this week and chanted, ”Pete can’t be our president, where was $15 in South Bend?’
Pete Buttigieg is trying to improve his standing with black Democratic voters, as South Carolina Democrats head to the polls Saturday
After listening to several McDonald’s and Wendy’s workers speak, Buttigieg shouted through his remarks as about a dozen ‘Black Voters Matter’ protesters continued heckling him.
‘You deserve a union and we stand with you,’ the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana said. ‘No matter who you support, I support you, we support you, we stand together and we will not rest until one job is enough in the United States of America.’
‘Thank you for standing up, thank you for inspiring me,’ Buttigieg said before trying to make his way to his waiting SUV.
The 2020 candidate was followed by droves of reporters – and the ‘Black Voters Matter’ group, who continued their chant.
They kept it going even after Buttigieg’s campaign vehicle sped away.
Brittany Smalls, the Pennsylvania coordinator for Black Voters Matter, said she didn’t believe Buttigieg truly supported a $15 an hour minimum wage because he didn’t enact one in South Bend.
‘And we cannot have people come into our neighborhoods, pimping our people and wanting photo-ops and really are not for the cause of raising [the minimum wage to] $15 an hour,’ said Smalls. ‘If your own city has not raised the wage to $15 an hour, how canyou advocate for something?’ she added.
A spokesperson for Buttigieg’s campaign pointed out that the mayor’s hands were tied thanks to Indiana’s state laws.
Democrats in state government have tried multiple times to raise the state minimum wage but have been unsuccesful.
The Atlanta-based Black Voters Matter, which is technically non-partisan despite their anti-Buttigieg fervor, kicked off a South Carolina bus tour on Saturday and will hold events around the state until Saturday’s Democratic presidential primary.
The South Carolina primary is the first test of presidential candidates’ strength in the south, where the population of black voters is a bigger chunk of the electorate than it is in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, where contests have been held so far.