It didn’t take long for Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to hit back at Joe Biden shortly after the former vice president released his new campaign ad ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
Biden’s newest campaign ad, which mocks Buttigieg’s experience as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, comes on the heels of Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leading the Iowa caucuses, which has yet to declare an official winner. Biden came in fourth place in the caucuses, falling behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
In the ad titled “Pete’s Record,” Biden’s campaign contrasts his experience as vice president during the Obama administration with Buttigieg’s time as the mayor of South Bend. The background music abruptly changes from a cinematic orchestral melody when listing Biden’s accomplishments to a more comical tone when describing and criticizing Buttigieg’s time as a small city mayor.
According to the Associated Press Saturday, Biden repeated points made against Buttigieg in the campaign ad during an event in New Hampshire.
“I do not believe we’re a party at risk if I’m the nominee,” Biden told voters in Manchester, according to the AP. “I do believe we’re a party at risk if we nominate someone who has never held a higher office than the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.”
In a statement shared with TPM, Buttigieg’s campaign spokesperson Chris Meagher called out Biden for putting down his mayoral experience.
“At this moment, the American people are crying out for something completely different from this classic Washington style of politics,” Meagher said in the statement. “While Washington politics trivializes what goes on in communities like South Bend, South Bend residents who now have better jobs, rising income, and new life in their city don’t think their lives are a Washington politician’s punchline.”
Meagher added that Buttigieg’s “on the ground experience as mayor, turning around a Midwestern industrial city, is exactly why he is running for president.”
“The Vice President’s decision to run this ad speaks more to where he currently stands in this race than it does about Pete’s perspective as a mayor and veteran,” Meagher said in the statement.
Watch Biden’s campaign ad below:
Former Mayor Pete doesn’t think very highly of the Obama-Biden record. Let’s compare. pic.twitter.com/132TB7MHaq
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2020
