UNDER FIRE: Buttigieg Faces Calls to Resign as Mayor, Criticism from South Bend Fraternal Order of Police

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Jun 25, 2019

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is facing scrutiny from members of his town as he travels the country campaigning.

“Because of Pete’s selfishness, in my opinion, he is still the mayor,” Derek Dieter, former South Bend Common Council president told Washington Free Beacon.

Dieter called for Buttigieg’s resignation from his mayoral position.

“To me, it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If you’re running for president, that’s a lot of pressure, you got to be on the road. Everything that happens in South Bend shouldn’t be on your mind. You should be concentrating on running for president. So, I’m adamant that he should resign as mayor.”

Over the weekend, a black man was killed by a white police officer, stirring tensions in the city. Buttigieg returned to South Bend, where angry citizens confronted him at a town hall meeting, shouting him down. When he attempted to join a Black Lives Matter protest, he was again the subject of scorn from protestors.

Meanwhile, the town’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is also unhappy with the mayor.

The FOP released a statement that accused Buttigieg of “solely vying for political gain,” and said that his statements in the wake of the shooting “already have and will continue to have detrimental effects on the city’s officers.” The group accused him of focusing solely on one racially charged shooting, while ignoring two others that recently occurred in the town.

Buttigieg has not taken much heat on the national stage. He has taken over the role of upstart Democratic Party primary candidate, which many thought would belong to former Texas State Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke.

Despite being gay, he has been criticized in some progressive circles for being a white male, and thus not “diverse” enough to be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

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