October Democratic debate: Live updates on Pete Buttigieg's performance
Chris SikichEditor's note: Refresh your screen to view the latest updates.
Buttigieg plugs the military
Update: 11 p.m.
Asked about a surprising friendship, Buttigieg said many he had in the military were unlikely.
He said soldiers learned to trust each other despite their differing backgrounds. In the end, he said, his fellow soldiers didn't care whether he went home to a boyfriend or girlfriend or whether his father had immigrated.
"We learned to trust each other with our lives," he said.
The military, he said, can create a sense of belonging and of friendship. And that's one reason, he said, service is so important.
Of course, he used that to transition into his campaign, saying he hopes to create a sense of belonging if elected.
Buttigieg offers “the right vision”
Update: 10:40 p.m.
Asked what was the right vision for the next president, Buttigieg, of course, offered his own. He ran down a list of his campaign issues, including Medicare for all who want it, subsidized college and decriminalizing border crossings.
But he also took a shot at Biden
“We’re being offered a false choice,” he said. “I don’t agree with the vice president that Trump is an aberration. I don’t believe that there is a back to normal.”
Buttigieg said normal didn’t work and that’s why Trump won. He reiterated his previous point that the industrial Midwest is hurting and Washington isn’t listening.
After he was finished speaking, Biden, feeling misrepresented, interjected with a quick “I did not say back to normal.”
Buttigieg wants to expand the Supreme Court
Update: 10:30 p.m.
Asked whether his previous proposal to expand the Supreme Court was court packing, Buttigieg said it wasn't.
He said he wants to find a way to take politics out of the appointment of Supreme Court justices, referencing one plan where the justices must unanimously pick a certain number of members. He said he wasn't wedded to one plan.
But, he said, it's not a good thing when every Supreme Court nomination turns into an apocalyptic and ideological fight.
He also used the question to say he supports abortion rights, a question he didn't get a chance to answer.
Buttigieg takes on O'Rourke on gun control
Update: 9:45 p.m.
Buttigieg has been criticizing O'Rourke's proposal for a mandatory gun buy-back program. At the debate, he said it was clear O'Rourke doesn't know how that would work.
"You just made it clear you don't know how this is going to take weapons off the streets," he said. "If you can develop the plan further, I think we can have a debate on it, but we can't wait."
Buttigieg said Congress must take other steps on gun control, including an assault-style rifle ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.
O'Rourke indicated his proposal is popular but politicians won't act, to which Buttigieg shot back, "The problem isn't the polls, the problem is the policy," he said. "I don't need lessons from you on courage, political or personal."
Buttigieg said the problem is lobbying from the National Rifle Association and their "enablers in Congress."
Buttigieg indicates Syria withdrawal is a stain on U.S. honor
Update: 9:25 p.m.
In an exchange with Gabbard, Buttigieg disagreed that America's presence in Syria was an endless war. He said a small number of U.S. soldiers on the ground had been preventing Turkey from genocide of the Kurds and a resurgence of ISIS.
"The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of America's presence, it's a consequence of a withdrawal and betrayal by this president of American allies and values."
He also said American soldiers for the first time feel ashamed of what their country has done. Serving in Afghanistan, he said, the American flag on his shoulder kept him safe.
Now, he said, he worries allies will not think America will keep its word and he would have had trouble looking people in the eye when he was in Afghanistan.
He thinks American troops are now more unsafe throughout the world.
"I will restore our credibility before it's finally too late."
Buttigieg is all for a wealth tax
Update: 9 p.m.
Buttigieg says he's "all for a wealth tax," but doesn't think politicians in Washington have delivered on past promises to fix the tax system.
"Let me tell you how this looks from the industrial Midwest where I live," he said. "Washington politicians ... saying all of the right things, offering the most elegant policy prescriptions and nothing changes."
He said his father drove him to school in a Chevy Cavalier and he thought the empty factories out the windows were normal. He learned when he went to college, he said, other communities faced fewer such hardships.
He said that's why many workers took a chance on Trump.
Buttigieg draws contrast with Warren
Update: 8:30 p.m.
Buttigieg used the debate over health care to draw a contrast between Warren, who wants to expand Medicare for everyone. Buttigieg has advocated to let people either buy into Medicare or to keep their private insurance.
“I don’t think the American people are wrong when they say that what they want is a choice,” he said. “And the choice of Medicare for all who want it, which is affordable for everyone, because we make sure the subsidies are in place, allows you to get that health care. It’s just better than Medicare-for-all-whether-you-want-it-or-not and I don’t understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage for everyone is to obliterate private plans, kicking 150 million Americans off their insurance in four short years."
The exchange started when the moderators noted Warren didn’t say how she was going to pay for Medicare for all.
Buttigeig said that’s why people are so frustrated with Washington and Capital Hill and indicated it would cost trillions of dollars.
"Your signature is to have a plan for everything ... except this!"
Warren said Medicare-for-all-who-want-it is really Medicare-for-all-who-can-afford-it. She indicated many people would be left behind under Buttigeig’s proposal.
Warren said costs would go up for the wealthy and corporations but not for middle class families under her plan. She said she would not sign a bill into law that raises costs for the middle class.
Buttigieg says impeachment should be bipartisan effort
Update: 8 p.m.
Buttigeig, standing between Warren and Yang near the center of the stage, got his first bite of the apple about 10 minutes into the debate.
Asked whether the decision by Democrats to proceed with impeachment despite the general lack of support among Republicans is a mistake, Buttigieg turned the question around.
"It’s a mistake on the part of the Republicans who enable a president who's actions are as offensive to their own supposed values as they are to the values we all share."
Buttigieg said President Trump should be removed from office because if he isn’t, the message to future presidents is that they are above the law or can get away with anything.
He said he fears the country will be more vulnerable than ever when the Trump presidency ends, one way or another, with major issues left to tackle from the economy to climate change.
A dozen candidates share stage in fourth debate
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be among a dozen candidates looking to break away from the field during the fourth Democratic debate, a 3-hour event scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
Grabbing the spotlight could be tricky. The debate is being billed as the largest ever field at a televised primary.
The 10 candidates who competed in September's debate are back for this round. In addition to Buttigieg, they also include former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
Since that debate, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and businessman Tom Steyer have also met the polling and fundraising thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee, and they, too, will be taking the stage.
Biden, Warren and Sanders have been leading the pack in polling, while Buttigieg and Harris generally have been languishing behind in single digits.
CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, as well as Marc Lacey of the New York Times, will moderate.
The fifth Democratic debate is scheduled for Nov. 20 in Georgia and might provide a better opportunity for the leading candidates to highlight their proposals. Hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post, it will include higher fundraising and polling qualifications.
Buttigieg already has qualified. So have Biden, Warren, Sanders, Harris, Booker, Yang and Steyer.
Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at 317-444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.