Pete Buttigieg slammed President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday as he waited for results from New Hampshire’s primary.
The former mayor of South Bend spent the morning dropping off donuts at polling places and doing TV interviews.
He told NBC’s ‘Today Show’ that President Trump can’t ‘figure out what to do with me.’
‘I don’t think he can figure out what to do with me, and that’s fine by me. I’m not that focused on this president’s approach because they always do the same thing. He’s going to find a vulnerability, and if he can’t, he’ll make one up,’ Buttigieg said.
Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Annie Kuster carrying doughnuts to supporters while visiting a polling station outside Hopkinton High School in New Hampshire
Buttigieg supporters rally for their candidate at Webster Elementary School’s polling place in Manchester
Pete Buttigieg hugs a supporter at a Nashua, N.H., polling location
President Trump has mocked Buttigieg
Trump attacked Buttigieg last week during an economic speech in North Carolina when he was mocking the Democrats for their mangled Iowa caucuses, which failed to produce a clear winner when a counting app didn’t work.
‘It turned out to be Pete Buttigieg. Who ever the hell that is? Mayor Pete,’ Trump said. ‘Somebody explain that one to me. Have you ever seen anything so crazy?’
Buttigieg is running second in polling on the New Hampshire primary as Bernie Sanders has surged to first and Amy Klobuchar is closing in on third place.
Buttigieg did a round of TV interviews, talking to the Today Show
Buttigieg also stopped by the ‘Morning Joe’ set
But after this first round of Democratic voting – Nevada and South Carolina are next – comes the mighty Super Tuesday. Fourteen states and a third of delegates needed for the nomination are up for grabs that day.
Bloomberg has invested his time and money in those areas.
‘I don’t have billions of dollars to put on the air waves,’ Buttigieg told the ‘Today Show.’ ‘We have to earn every vote going through the process, beginning in the early states, where you show versus tell.’
Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign. The billionaire former mayor of New York has dropped $300 million so far on the contest and there are estimates he could spend up to $1 billion.
In his last campaign rally Monday night, Buttigieg lobbed a final attack on Bernie Sanders and agreed with a voter who complained ‘f***’ when the former mayor talked about President Donald Trump.
Buttigieg made his final plea to New Hampshire voters ahead of the state’s crucial primary, bringing in actor Kevin Costner to introduce him to voters before the polls open.
The former South Bend mayor launched dual attacks – against Sanders who has taken the lead in the polls on the Democratic Party in New Hampshire and against President Trump, who held a mile 30 miles down the road in Manchester.
When Buttigieg started to tear into Trump’s federal budget plan, a vocal voter in the crowd yelled: ‘F***.’
‘Well said,’ Buttigieg responded as the audience whooped and cheered.
Pete Buttigieg agreed with a voter who complained ‘f***’ when the former mayor talked about President Donald Trump
Buttigieg attacked President Trump’s budget plan, which was released on Monday
He told voters Trump ‘thinks we’re suckers.’
‘The President thinks we are suckers,’ he said. ‘And this is our chance to send a completely different message that he will hear.’
His comments came as he slammed Trump’s $4.8 trillion budget proposal, which was released by the White House on Monday and slashed social safety net programs like food stamps and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
His ‘budget shows the exact opposite’ of what he promised, Buttigieg said fo Trump.
‘Wouldn’t it be nice to put the chaos behind us?’ he asked voters, who cheered ‘Pete, Pete, Pete.’
In his last rally before the primary voting starts, Buttigieg also lobbied a grenade at Sanders, who has raced ahead of him in the polls in the past two days.
‘And that’s where I parted ways with my friend Senator Sanders, who has a different approach. I’m concerned that the idea that you got either be for a revolution, or you must be for the status quo, paints a picture where most of us can’t see ourselves,’ he said.
Actor Kevin Costner campaigned for the former mayor
Buttigieg also lobbied a final attack on Bernie Sanders, who is leading in the polls
The pressure is on Buttigieg, who came out Iowa in the lead but has seen his polling numbers drop to second place.
The youngest candidate in the field, he declared himself the winner of the chaotic Iowa caucuses and went on the victory tour – stopping by all five Sunday morning political affairs shows, doing national TV interviews, and posting record crowd numbers at his New Hampshire rallies.
And, like any frontrunner, he became a target.
Buttigieg was the main punching bag for other Democrats at Friday night’s debate in Manchester. Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar teamed up to hit him on his lack of experience – the former South Bend mayor has never held national office – and Bernie Sanders knocked him for taking donations from wealthy contributors.
At times during the debate, Buttigieg – a Rhodes scholar who speaks seven languages – looked shocked to be under going the kind of criticism he probably rarely has heard from adults in the room.
He has soldiered on but now he needs a win on Tuesday.
Candidates spent the final day of campaigning racing across the state before ending with their big closing rallies. Buttigieg had three events on Monday.
And voters are making the rounds to check out the candidates.
Polls have showed a third of New Hampshire voters remain undecided, making the last 24 hours in the state crucial for the candidates ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
Buttigieg and Sanders attacked each other directly on Sunday as they criss crossed the state.
‘I’m running against some guys, Pete Buttigieg, who have raised campaign funds from over 40 billionaires,’ Sanders, 78, told a crowd of nearly 600 supporters in Hanover, repeating his criticism of the former mayor’s donors that he’s been using for the past week.
It’s a charge his supporters have taken up. At a Democratic Party event in Manchester Friday night, Sanders supporters booed Buttigieg, 38, during his remarks and blasted him as ‘Wall Street Pete.’
Five new polls out on Sunday showed Sanders leading Buttigieg in the state: by 7 points in a CNN poll; 3 points in a Boston Herald poll; 2 points in a Boston Globe poll; 10 points in an Emerson University poll and 4 points in a CBS News poll.
And Buttigieg also attacked Sanders by name when he was on the stump.
The former mayor of South Bend attacked Sanders for his talk of a ‘revolution,’ saying most people don’t share that vision.
‘I respect Senator Sanders, but when I hear this message go out that you’re either for a revolution or you got to be for the status quo, that’s a vision of the county that doesn’t have room for most of us,’ Buttigieg said.
He also criticized Sanders’ Medicare-for-All universal healthcare plan.
‘What we could do without is a plan so expensive that Senator Sanders himself freely admits he has no idea how it’s supposed to be paid for,’ he said.
Buttigieg also drew fire from Klobuchar and Biden about his lack of experience – he has never held national office – but he has fought back by arguing ‘mayors get things done.’
Biden launched a vicious attack on Buttigieg over the weekend.
‘I do believe we’re a party at risk if we nominate someone who’s never held an office higher than mayor of South Bend, Indiana,’ the former vice president told a crowd at the Rex Theatre in Manchester Saturday afternoon.
Bernie Sanders is leading almost all polls in New Hampshire
Joe Biden has dropped to fourth place
And at an event later in the day he said of Buttigieg, ‘This guy’s not a Barack Obama.’
And his new ad, which put the two candidates’ records side-by-side, was tougher on Buttigieg than the digs Biden deployed onstage. The campaign has been pushing the ad on social media, where it’s racked up $2.7 million views on Twitter and 69,000 views on Facebook.
While Biden helped get the Affordable Care Act passed giving healthcare to 20 million Americans, the ad boasted, Buttigieg ‘installed decorative lights under bridges giving citizens of South Bend colorfully illuminated rivers.’
And while Biden saved the auto industry after the 2008 crash, the spot said, Buttigieg ‘revitalized the sidewalks of downtown South Bend by laying out decorative brick.’