Late Night with Seth Meyers (TV Series)

Amy Sedaris/Pete Buttigieg/Toro y Moi (2019)

Pete Buttigieg: Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate

Quotes 

• Self - Host : you were here in June 2017, and I remember spending the whole day making sure I can say your last name right and now you're so well known it just "rolls off" my tongue. Is it a "surprise" the reaction you've gotten in these early days after announcing your candidacy?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : yeah, just the speed of it. I mean obviously, we were "hoping" for a "reaction", we were "hoping" for a "good response", but the way this "thing" has taken off is past our most optimistic scenario. So, now we've got a lot of work to do to make sure we have the "organizing", the "substance" behind it to take us "all the way" but it's a fantastic beginning

  Self - Host : in the early days before you had a name and face recognition, were there humbling moments when you were out there around on the campaign trail?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : oh, yeah, I mean not that long ago I was boarding a flight to New Hampshire, a few people recognized me, came up and said "Hello", and this lady standing right next to me said "You must be Pete?" I said "Yeah," she's clearly seen these interactions and we had a nice little chat, she said "Why are you going to New Hampshire?" I said "Well, the campaign of course", she said "Oh, right, right, but I asked "What station are you a reporter for?" And it's one of those moments that "caught me off the side"

  Self - Host : [laughs]  yeah

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : and I forgot everybody knows who I am but you know, that's the "thing" you gotta remember is you feel like you're getting into this "bubble", like everybody's heard your "message" when actually a lot of people still haven't dialed in for the process yet. They're not following the "blow by blow" and my job is to find as many different ways as possible to get them to get the "message" out to more people

  Self - Host : I wanna ask really quick before I get back to your campaign and your candidacy, what was your "initial reaction" to what we saw today from Barr and the release of the Mueller Report?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : I mean I guess it "confirmed" a lot of "things" that we were worried about? We have a President who acts in a self-serving way that there was a lot of behavior that "at best" was unethical, and legally "problematic" to put it "charitably" and the way the Attorney General conducted himself as though he was the personal attorney of the President was incredibly troubling too. At the same time too, politically, I'm not sure it will change much and it's one more "reminder" if we really want to send Trumpism into the history books, the best thing we can do is defeat it decisively at the ballot box in 2020

  Self - Host : [after the audience applauses, sarcastically, jokingly]  I'm very good at judging how the audience feels about something: their split right down the middle right now. You have a military background, one of the other "things" that's been true I think for the last two years, but especially for upholding the focus today is that Donald trump almost always seems want to dismiss military intelligence while at the same time, boasting about what a great supporter of the military he is. Is that a hypocrisy that more acutely felt by you because of your military background?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : yeah, I mean what's upsetting is especially when you're in military intelligence, when your deployed like when I was in Afghanistan you do believe the highest honor really that can happen to you as a member of the intelligence community, is that your work goes to a policy maker that can help them make a decision. You believe that they read these things carefully, when people are putting their lives on the line in order to support US security through good intelligence. You know that whole system rests on the "belief" that the Presidents, the Generals are using that information or at least reading it, right? That their using it wisely but to see the way intelligence is being "politicized" to see the way that the military families are being treated as "props" by this President is demoralizing and it's one more reason why it might not be a bad idea to have somebody in the White House that "actually" served

  Self - Host : [while the audience applauds]  I think there is this question in order you have to be a successful Democratic candidate, you have to bring together many people from diverse backgrounds, it's obviously more diverse voting "base" than I think of what you think of is historically a more Republican voting "base" yet, when you make a decision like do you just commit to the Democratic "base" or when you make an "approach" to Trump voters, how do you speak to them? What "message" is that you or any of your colleagues that are trying to get this Democratic nomination "approach" Trump voters? What's the "message" your "trying" to give them?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : well, look, there's some voters we're never get through but there are many others I think we can. If somebody repeatedly voted Democratic and then voted for this President out of any number of reasons but basically voted to "burn the house down", I want that voter back voting Democratic again and...

  Self - Host : [interrupts him, jokingly, sarcastically]  because their sitting in the house and their like "Oh, no, this is a terrible idea"

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : well, you know, to some extent, it came from a level of frustration around the system...

  Self - Host : sure

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : and that's not to excuse the racism and the other "things" went into that campaign but I think people are more susceptible to those "messages" of racism, xenophobia, if they also feel a certain level of insecurity and uncertainty in their economic and social lives, and so what I think what we've gotta do is we've got to reach out to those voters reminding them we're trying to get you a raise: we're the ones trying to get you paid family leave. We're the ones trying to stop the Republican Congress from taking away your healthcare and while we do that and this is the important thing alongside that, we never "budge" on our bedrock commitment to racial and social justice because that's where our moral authority as a party comes from in the first place

• Self - Host : you are a millennial mayor of a town in Indiana: South Bend and your very popular and it would seem by most polls but also, I think maybe people in New York or across the country don't realize but that's a very diverse town you represent. You've had some success but you've had some issues like poverty, homelessness. What part of being mayor do you think will sort of impose itself on the job of being the President the most?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : well, I think what you learn when you're a mayor is that your job is not only to come up with good policies but also to run an administration capably but also to hold people together and make sure your calling people to their highest values. I think that might be the part that's most missing in the White House right now and if we want to deal with our toughest issues, we have to have that attitude so in a place like South Bend, still a largely low income community because of the departure of the auto industry that started in the sixties, we've been able to reduce poverty, we've been able to put a lot of resources into dealing with things like homelessness but you can't pretend those problems have just gone away and I guess at the national level, the President thinks he can just say the opposite and "wilt" it away, whether it's North Korea, or whether it's a domestic issue, but when you're in a community, there are no "alternative facts." If there's a problem that persists from a hole in the road to homelessness, you have to just continue calling people to work on it with you until it gets better

  Self - Host : [before taking out a photo]  I wanted to ask you this as well, during your announcement, you were on stage with your husband Chasten, this must've been and incredible moment for anyone to be with their partner on that day must be a special moment but to think four years ago gay marriage was not legal, did that day have an extra added "element" to you?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : yeah, if nothing else, it's just a reason to believe even if this dark and complicated and bleak moment in American politics it's a reason to be hopeful. I mean running for Office is an act of hope: you don't do it unless you believe that it's at least possible, using all the mechanics of the political system to make better things happen and if somebody's whose marriage exists because nine women and men sat and took and a vote by the grace of one vote, we get to be married now. I understand how the decisions are made in those big white buildings really affect our lives. The idea that at the beginning of this decade, I had a choice: I could either be "out" or I could be in the military. I could either be "out" or I could run for elected office, at least that's how I viewed it at the time, and just at the idea just a few years later, I announced a campaign for the American Presidency, and my husband comes out on stage to be with me after I do it, it just shows you what's possible in this country

  Self - Host : [while the audience applauds]  it was a wonderful thing to watch: this is mind blowing to me, you are the youngest person as of now running for President, but more people are joining everyday

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : you never know

  Self - Host : [while taking out another photo, referring to Buttigieg's hairstyle at the time]  so don't think you've got that one for life. Also, Bernie Sanders is the oldest person currently running for President. When you were eighteen years old, you won an essay in 2000, writing about Bernie Sanders and there you were, I would call that a high school "cut"

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : [sarcastically]  thank you for sharing that with the American people, I really appreciate it

  Self - Host : but it must be surreal to you now. Obviously Bernie was someone influential to you back then and to be in the same "sphere" with you now?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : yeah, I wrote that essay, I feel like I just discovered a band before they were cool, he was an obscure Congressman from Vermont, and I just knew there was something compelling on the way he said on what he believed at that time. When you feel we didn't have a lot of that in politics, so I wrote it up and I won that essay contest, it is a little strange to be competing with him now. Frankly, a lot of the people I'm competing with now are people I admire, I don't view this "process" right now as much as having "opponents" but as much as "competitors", and we can have a lot in common and at the same time, we have rather different "messages", and very different "messengers"

  Self - Host : this is a photo that went around, again you're running for President, you're still doing your duties as Mayor, tell us what's happening in this photo right here?

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : oh yeah, this was a really fun one. So, I got to the office early, which was rare, I was "knocking out" some work, I stepped out into the hallway to use the bathroom and the elevator opened and this couple said "Mayor!" This is exactly the kind of moment my staff tries to avoid, that I'm alone, interacting with people constantly wanting something but like when your mayor, you have to make time for everybody

  Self - Host : sure

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : and I was trying to be polite and letting them know I didn't have a lot of time, and they explained why they were there, she was on her way to get a C-section at nine, this must've been around eight fifteen and she said "I want to tell my mom the news all at once, so we were wondering if you could marry us?"

  Self - Host : wow

  Self - Democratic Presidential Candidate : so, I thought, "I could make time for that." So, we came into the office, my staff member found some ribbon, they didn't have time to get a ring, so I took the ribbon and made little rings out of it. I "knocked" out", "By the powers, vested in me by the state of Indiana, I now pronounce you man and wife," and sent them on their way to the hospital, later we got a picture of them with a really healthy kid, so I'm very happy for them

  Self - Host : that's fantastic, I also like the Indiana's mayor's office does look like the set of Parks and Recreation