Pete Buttigieg: The Democratic Party’s debating guru – Washington Examiner
The article discusses Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s growing reputation as a “debating guru” within the Democratic Party. Recently, he has taken on the role of a coach for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in preparation for Walz’s debate against Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, portraying Vance’s perspective to help Walz formulate effective responses. Buttigieg’s past experience includes coaching Vice President Kamala Harris for her debate against Mike Pence in 2020, where he tried to accurately embody Pence’s style rather than simply impersonating him.
He characterizes Vance’s political stance as nihilistic and criticizes it as a form of “faux populism” that misrepresents his Midwestern roots while promoting policies detrimental to the region. In contrast, House Republican Whip Tom Emmer is preparing for the debate by studying Walz’s previous performances, creating a competitive atmosphere leading up to the event. Buttigieg’s strong debate skills were first recognized during the 2019 Democratic primary debates, where he was noted for his unique and relevant responses to issues.
Pete Buttigieg: The Democratic Party’s debating guru
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has emerged as the Democratic Party’s debating guru, a position crowned by his coaching of Gov. Tim Walz (R-MN).
In preparation for Walz’s debate with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Buttigieg has taken on the role of former President Donald Trump’s running mate to prepare best. The coveted position reflects the Democratic perception that Buttigieg is a king of debating among Democrats.
Before this year’s debate prep, Buttigieg coached Kamala Harris in the 2020 vice presidential debate, playing the role of then-Vice President Mike Pence.
“I had the peculiar assignment of trying to inhabit the mind of Mike Pence for about a week,” he told Vanity Fair. “That is a very kind of weird, challenging headspace.”
Buttigieg clarified that his primary purpose wasn’t to perform an impression on the candidate but that impersonating mannerisms played a role.
“I knew the job wasn’t about an impression, but yes, I did try to render Mike Pence’s style as accurately as possible to help her prepare,” he said.
This time, Buttigieg must inhabit the mind of Vance, who liberal journalist Ezra Klein calls a “foil” to Buttigieg, both for their Midwestern origin and effectiveness at communication. In an interview with him, the transportation secretary characterized Vance as nihilistic, only feigning support for Trump to boost his political standing.
“He’s somebody who is a product of the Midwest but, after trading off of that Midwest identity, is now, in my view, promoting policies and a ticket that would be really harmful for the industrial Midwest,” he said. “And so I’m thinking a lot about what I consider to be a faux populism. This space he’s carved out, where he achieves a certain credibility by criticizing both parties, saying that Democrats and Republicans in the past have gotten things wrong, but then all the prescriptions he seems to be ready to vote for or act for are things like undercutting your right to choose or tax cuts for the rich or a lot of other things that I think are objectionable about good old-fashioned Republican policy. I’m just thinking a lot about how to penetrate that veneer.”
On the other end, House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) played Walz in Vance’s debate prep. Emmer was reported to have been studying videos of Walz’s past debates to copy his mannerisms properly — a tactic likely to be replicated by Buttigieg standing in for Vance.
Buttigieg’s effectiveness at debating was first showcased in 2019 during the Democratic primary debates. At the time, debate coach Todd Graham ranked the presidential contender at the top of the crowded list of candidates in terms of debate performance. According to him, Buttigieg has a penchant for providing unique but on-topic answers while keeping a calm but assertive demeanor.
“Mayor Pete demonstrated some sweet debating techniques that I teach, yet rarely see deployed as well as he did last night,” Graham wrote. “He pivoted questions to keep his answers on topic, but still unique from the other candidates — and by doing so he provided himself with an advantage.”
“Buttigieg made it clear that he isn’t going to roll over for anybody, especially Donald Trump,” he continued. “Voters needed to see well-harnessed assertiveness, and Buttigieg’s tone and demeanor were just right this time.”
Buttigieg is seen as such an effective debater that he is often sent into hostile territory to argue with pundits, mainly on Fox News. Vanity Fair jokingly cited him as having “Fox News fame.”
Whether his experience will be enough to prepare Walz to tip the scales in his favor will be seen during the first vice presidential debate on Tuesday.
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Harris has indicated she want to keep the same old gang in place as her cabinet of dip xxxxx except for fat man who she wants to replace with a woman or at least some one wearing a skirt, this just goes to show you how lazy and stupid she really is, none of the existing cabinet members have made any successful collective decisions since being in that cabinet, just great yes men for Biden/ Harris, guess she is hoping for those continues results, which were terrible. This is the same cabinet even our Allie Israel does not trust to keep in the loop. Harris commands “zero international respect abroad” and never will, she will set the rest of the world on fire screaming joy, the whole time. Can’t think of one positive attribute Harris has, like Biden she can’t answer questions, Now we find our Biden /Harris have misdirected the use of over one trillion dollars since being in office, guess what? these are the very same people who are trying to get her reelected . Parasites on your tax dollars. Wake up America if we don’t unload these tax wasting blood suckers we will not have a Country left. her lies an incompetence have already cost the tax payers trillions in waste.