South Bend’s recent violence discussed by the Mayor at the Presidential debate

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(NETWORK INDIANA) South Bend is hurting, said Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in the Democrat presidential debate on NBC Thursday night. “Mayor Pete” was in the debate with some of the top tier candidates, like Bernie Sanders and former vice pres. Joe Biden.

Buttigieg said he is not allowed to take sides until the investigation is over, but that his community is in anguish over the shooting of Eric Logan. Logan’s family has filed a lawsuit against the city and the police officer who shot Logan.

“The officer said he was attacked with a knife. But, he didn’t have his body camera on. It’s a mess and we’re hurting,” he said. Buttigieg has been criticized for not handling the violence in South Bend. He was also asked to comment on gun violence across the country.

“If more guns made us safer, we’d be the safest country on earth. It doesn’t work that way.”

When asked why the police force in South Bend is only six percent black, when the city is 26 percent black, Buttigieg responded, “because I couldn’t get it done”.

The mayor also said he would like to see America help low and middle income people get free college tuition. But, he did not say he’s like everyone to have a free ride.

“I think the children of the wealthiest Americans can pay at least a little bit of tuition. And, while I want tuition costs to go down, I don’t think we can buy down every last penny for them,” he said.

Buttigieg criticized Pres. Trump several times for what he says is a lack of leadership, especially in how the U.S. is handling its relationship with Chine.

“Tariffs are taxes and Americans are gonna pay an average of $800 more a year because of these tariffs. Meanwhile China is investing so that they could soon be able to run circles around us in artificial intelligence,” said Buttigieg. “This president is fixated on the China relationship as if all that mattered was the export balance on dishwashers. We’ve got a much bigger issue on our hands.”

He said China’s model is being held up as an alternative to ours, and could look like a better one because of the internal divisions in our country.

Buttigieg also said he would like to see something like Medicare available on the health care exchanges, a version of Medicare for All, but with private health care still available.

“If people like us are right that that will be not only a more inclusive plan, but a more efficient plan than any of the corporate answers out there, then it will be a very natural glide path to the single-payer environment.”