Rep. Anthony Brown of Maryland has endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president. Who is Anthony Brown? His biggest claim to fame is that he managed to lose a race for governor of Maryland to a Republican, something many of us thought was nearly impossible to do.
Brown is important for Buttigieg’s purposes, though, because he is African-American and member of the congressional black caucus. Buttigieg is desperately seeking African-American support, of which, if the polls are correct, he has virtually none.
However, I want to focus not on the politics of Brown’s endorsement but rather on his rationale. Brown stated, in part:
Our country needs a president who can heal our divides and restore decency to our nation’s highest office.
Ironically, this claim came the day after Buttigieg blamed Trump, along with Iran, for the accidental shooting down by the Iranians of a Ukrainian passenger jet. This is the guy who is going to “heal our divides”?
Buttigieg’s charge is execrable. Whatever the foreseeable consequences of our killing Iran’s head terrorist, Gen. Soleimani, might have been, they certainly did not include Iran accidentally attacking a civilian aircraft with no Americans aboard.
Does anyone imagine that Buttigieg would have said such a thing if, after Bill Clinton ordered those cruise missile strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, the Afghans or the Sudanese had accidentally shot down a passenger jet? Does anyone imagine that, in similar circumstances, Buttigieg would have made this allegation against President Obama? Of course he wouldn’t have.
Pete Buttigieg has taken the “blame America first” mindset to a level even Jeanne Kirkpatrick might have had trouble imagining when she gave her famous speech about it. He has done so out of sheer political opportunism.
This slimy politician isn’t going to heal America. Indeed, if Buttigieg becomes president, he will be fair game for just the kind of cheap shot he has taken at Trump. His attempt to blame Trump for the downing of the Ukrainian plane should be held against him by all Trump supporters, however lukewarm, for the duration of his presidency (if America is saddled with it).
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