Buttigieg Campaign Accuses Sanders Supporters of Harassing Their ‘Staffers of Color’

A senior adviser for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has accused supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders of harassing their “staffers of color” after a white Black Lives Matter protester interrupted a campaign event on Wednesday evening.

The incident took place at an event in South Bend, where Buttigieg is the mayor.

Black South Bend Common Council member Sharon McBride was speaking at the Buttigieg event when she was interrupted by a white man wearing a BLM shirt.

“Where are the black leaders who don’t have three-piece suits, leather jackets, and nice clothing?” the protester yelled. “Who chose these people as black leaders?” He then took the mic from her and began yelling about there being a problem with police in the town before being removed by security.

Buttigieg responded to the incident on Thursday.

“It shows kind of where politics has come to, especially for somebody to interrupt an African American woman who was speaking about her truth and in her experience,” the 2020 hopeful told NBC. “But this is the climate that we’re in and we need to continue making sure that everyone is empowered to speak their truth, their experience, and in particular, when it comes to South Bend’s story.”

On Twitter, the candidate’s senior adviser Lis Smith took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders over the incident.

“It’s deeply depressing that @BernieSanders’ supporters have gone from harassing @PeteButtigieg‘s staffers of color online to harassing our supporters of color in real life, but here we are,” Smith wrote, quote tweeting someone discussing the fact that the protester had a pro-Bernie Sanders photo on his Facebook account.

The Hill reports that “while the South Bend Mayor is ahead in the polls in Iowa and only four points behind Sanders for the lead in New Hampshire, a recent The Economist/YouGov poll shows that only two percent of Black voters nationally said that Buttigieg was their first choice for the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2020.”

 

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