Buttigieg ‘Not Obviously Qualified’ to Be President, Says MSNBC Analyst

MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann on Tuesday said Iowa Democrats may consider South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg (D.) unqualified to be president. 

Heilemann told Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski elected Democrats in Iowa were "concerned" with the current field of Democratic presidential candidates. From their perspective, "Pete Buttigieg is someone who, you know, is mayor of a city of less than 100,000 people and is not obviously qualified to be president of the United States," Heilemann said. 

In the same segment, MSNBC political contributor Jason Johnson also targeted Buttigieg's lack of experience and the size of the city of South Bend. 

"You have Mayor Pete, who is basically the mayor of Whoville," Johnson said. "Who a lot of people like as a person and will probably vote for as a governor. But they don't think that he's old enough or experienced enough to be president."

Heilemann argued it would be a mistake for Democrats to be overly confident about next year's election too early on, and that when it comes to predicting outcomes there is "nothing more meaningless" than matchup polls. 

"It turns out that in battleground states, which are the purple states, the support for impeachment is smaller too," he said. "And I think it's a terrible mistake for Democrats to look at these national numbers and get overconfident."

Heilemann said elected Iowa Democrats saw faults in each of the four leading candidates. 

"They look really at the top four right now," Heilemann said. "And see a clear top four of whom one is a vice president who is showing weakness financially and otherwise. And then Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders [are] too far to the left from their point of view."

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