Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks at fouth DNC Forum in Baltimore, MD

South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg, spoke at the fourth and final DNC Future Forum Saturday afternoon. The forum was the last opportunity for the DNC Chair candidates to speak in front of the DNC committee prior to the final vote at the end of February. 

Buttigieg first spoke answering a question about his commitment to the Democratic party even if he lost the race for party chair. 

"We have got to emerge from this process as a unified democratic party. Because we know what we are up against, and it is not each other." 

About why he would be the best for party chair, Mayor Pete argued:

“If we’re going to reach to a new generation of organizers, why not put in a new generation of leaders? If we’re going to recognize the importance of the grass roots, why not put in the candidate who was at the Women’s March? Who led the way to the Houston Airport protest.”

Buttigieg spoke about how he would engage with citizens turned activists who are leading the new resistance movements across the country. 

"We have to have the humility to figure out where the party fits in the broader movement, not the other way around."

We have to make sure that the party is there, shoulder to shoulder to the activists and the organizers who are telling the stories at the local level."

The Mayor, who served with the Navy in Afghanistan, also had strong words for President Trump. 

"The hypocrisy, you can smell it."

“I’ll be damned if we’re going to have a draft-dodging, chickenhawk President of the Unites States, who thinks hes too smart to read his own intelligence briefings, ordering the people I served with back into another conflict because he can’t be bothered to do his job."

In his final comments, Mayor Pete again called for unity within the Democratic party. 

"If the outcome of this DNC race is that half the party feels like it's just been sent packing, we're going to be that much further on a back foot dealing with the real opposition which is Trump and the Republican opposition, Congress."

The DNC Committee will cast the final votes for DNC Chair on February 26th.