Buttigieg won’t say if Sanders, Biden can beat Trump

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Sunday dodged saying whether he thought his two top opponents can beat President Trump if one of them becomes the nominee. 

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., pitched himself as the candidate best positioned to take on Trump and would not say whether he thinks former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would be able to beat the president in November. 

Asked whether he believes Biden could defeat Trump, Buttigieg said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “I am better positioned to beat Donald Trump than any of my competitors.”

The former mayor added that he is going to support whoever is the nominee of the party. 

“I’m not asking that. I’m asking, do you think he can do it … or will turnout not be sufficient?” CNN’s Jake Tapper followed up. 

“Here’s my concern. If you look at the lessons of history over the last half-century, every time that we have won, every time my party has won the White House it has been with a candidate who is new in national politics, who doesn’t work in Washington or at least hadn’t been there very long, and it was opening the door to a new generation of leadership,” Buttigieg responded. 

“If you are looking at the lessons of history over the last half century, every time my party has won the White House, it has been with a candidate who is new in national politics,” Buttigieg says of Joe Biden’s candidacy. “Why would we take a chance on anything else?” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/TActQQrRsJ

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 2, 2020

“That is the best way to win, and at a moment like this, why would we take a chance on anything else?” he added. 

Asked whether Sanders would lose to Trump, Buttigieg again said he believes he has a “better chance of defeating” Trump. 

He said Sanders’s message of a political revolution could be polarizing for “most Americans.” 

Buttigieg said Democrats “can’t afford to polarize” and said it’s “not true” that voters have to pick between a political revolution and status quo. 

The former mayor also said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks voters understand that the Democratic candidates have similar beliefs and “are focused more than anything else that we have the nominee to defeat Donald Trump.”

“I believe I have the campaign best positioned to do that, the message best positioned to do that,” he said.

.@GStephanopoulos: “Do you need to crack the top 3 there in Iowa to be viable for this nomination?”

Pete Buttigieg: “We certainly need to have a strong finish here in Iowa.” https://t.co/yUdgU1pLTL pic.twitter.com/JXxE6u6hBu

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 2, 2020

Buttigieg has been hitting the two opponents in the days ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses.