Buttigieg: ‘If the Senate is the jury right now, we are the jury tomorrow’

Former South Bend, Ind., mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that he understood the voter frustration over the impeachment process but highlighted the opportunity for “accountability” in the form of the 2020 election.

“I understand the sense of exhaustion that can come from watching this whole thing play out,” Buttigieg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “SNL’s mockery of the trial almost seemed like it was a process that had more integrity than the actual trial having no witnesses at all and it beats you down, but if the Senate is the jury right now, we are the jury tomorrow.”

The flip side of this, he said, was “this is actually the year where there’s accountability.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Buttigieg whether he considered himself equipped to run a general election campaign against President Trump.

“I think we can fight fair but we’ve got to fight tough,” Buttigieg responded. “For one thing I’m not afraid of the kind of nonsense he’s going to throw around. I’ve seen worse things incoming than a tweet full of typos.”

Buttigieg also addressed Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) booing Hillary Clinton at a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in response to Clinton’s attacks on Sanders, saying “I’m not going to tell [Clinton] or anybody else where to head,” adding “the focus is not on relitigating a fight from 2016 or who said what where and when about social security in the 1990s.”