In a forum at the University of Nevada, Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg warned Black Law Students Association that white supremacy can “destroy” the country.

Buttigieg went on to say that if given a chance, he would use the “symbolic powers of the presidency” to fight against the white supremacy which he claimed can “totally destroy the American project.”

Then, Buttigieg used the opportunity to bash the president by stating that his administration had given rise to bigotry, and went on to cite Trump’s response to the deadly violence by the neo-Nazi supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I think we might live to see which side wins,” Buttigieg said. “The American dream, the American project—or these forces of white supremacy, of white nationalism.”

During the forum, Buttigieg came in to answer questions from Prof. Frank Cooper, Director of UNLV’s Program on Race, Gender & Policing, with topics ranging from criminal justice reform and drug legalization. His appearance was a part of a four-day tour to the Silver State to gain more support for the upcoming Nevada caucus which will take place on February 22.

Buttigieg had constantly been outspoken on combating “white supremacy.” Last July 2019, Buttigieg claimed that Trump’s administration had simmered massive racial prejudice and could go as far as to incite a civil war. “That is the only issue that almost ended this country…We’ve had a lot of challenges in this country, but the one that actually almost ended this country in the Civil War was white supremacy. It could be the lurking issue that ends this country in the future, if we don’t wrangle it down in our time,” Buttigieg said.

However, Buttigieg also had his share of “racial issues.” In fact, his decision to fire the first African American police Chief in Indiana was called by critics as one of his “greatest mistakes.” The incident took place when Buttigieg received complaints that the Chief had illegally wiretapped the officer’s phone calls after he heard that the force had been making racist comments against him.

Buttigieg had also been struggling to gain support from black communities. To explain this, Benjamin Dixon published a column on the Guardian entitled “Pete Buttigieg is the embodiment of white privilege—and black voters know it.” Dixon claimed that Buttigieg is the product of the “white supremacy” he had claimed to loathe.

Dixon wrote, “Political pundits and media outlets are scrambling to try to understand how it is that Buttigieg could have 0% support among black primary voters.” Dixon continued “First, ask any black person across the south and they’ll likely say the same thing: Buttigieg has less experience in office than our local church deacons - yet he is being propped up to be the next president, above equally educated and far more qualified politicians such as Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.”

Finally, Dixon added that “Black Americans understand one simple, albeit unfortunate, truth: we have to be twice as good as white men in order to earn half as much as they are given in this life.”