DNC candidate and Afghanistan veteran Pete Buttigieg blasted off on Donald Trump on Saturday, calling him “a draft-dodging chickenhawk president” whose unwillingness to “do his job properly” could lead to another deadly military conflict.
Mayor @PeteButtigieg speaking honestly about @realDonaldTrump at tonight’s #DNCForum #DNCChair #DNC #PickPete pic.twitter.com/7PNHoGwY5W
— Pete for DNC (@PeteforDNC) February 12, 2017
“I’ll be damned if we’re going to have a draft-dodging chickenhawk president of the United States – who thinks he’s too smart to read his own intelligence briefings – ordering the people I served with back into another conflict because he can’t be bothered to do his job properly,” said Buttigieg at a forum which included other DNC candidates, according to the Hill.
As the New York Times reported last year, Trump received five draft deferments from the military during the Vietnam War, including one for heel spurs. Buttigieg, on the other hand, was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves and served seven months in Afghanistan.
At the forum, Buttigieg encouraged Democrats to remain strong in their opposition to Trump and “tap into the moral outrage” that has spread across the country in the form of mass protests. He also took Trump to task for his executive order that bars refugees and Muslims from entering the United States.
Rep. Keith Ellison, another frontrunner for DNC chair, got in on the action, too, calling Trump “misogynistic” and slamming the new administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigration which resulted in hundreds of arrests across the country this week.
“We’ve got to be in solidarity, we’ve got to be with them,” Ellison said, according to the Hill. “We’ve got to be on the line, carrying the sign.”
While the first three weeks of Trump’s presidency have been defined by fear and chaos from coast to coast, it has had the unintended consequence of motivating and mobilizing millions of Americans – and the Democratic Party – in a huge way.
With their sights set on taking back Congress in 2018, Democratic leaders have quickly united in opposition to Trump and are going hard at the new president, knowing that a majority of the American people are on their side.
