Pete Buttigieg Suffers His Own Version of Jeb Bush's Infamous 'Please Clap' Moment
Democratic 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg had to instruct audience members to clap for him in an awkward moment on the campaign trail Tuesday.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, asked audience members at an Iowa campaign event if he “can look to you to spread that sense of hope to those that you know?”
The room went silent as the audience neither clapped nor applauded in response to Buttigieg’s question.
“Come on!” Buttigieg said, motioning with his arms for the audience to cheer.
The awkward moment immediately drew comparisons online to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s much-mocked “please clap” gaffe during the 2016 Republican primary.
Bush’s plea to his audience ended up becoming one of the defining moments of his doomed 2016 campaign.
A splice-up of Buttigieg and Bush asking their audiences to clap showed the similarities between the two moments:
I put the Buttigieg “Come On” and the Jeb “Please Clap” side by side and it’s kind of mesmerizing pic.twitter.com/Gp4L5oRq0J
— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) January 21, 2020
Other social media users also found the two moments similar:
“Please Clap” – @JebBush
“Come on” – @PeteButtigieg https://t.co/q534Y3lOs1— Street Justice (@seansabolesky) January 21, 2020
The new “please clap” moment of 2020 is FINALLY here y’all. @PeteButtigieg: *awkward pause*
“COME ON”
Audience: *hesitates then claps*
pic.twitter.com/NNenYhf7CK— Calli Norton (@CalliNorton) January 21, 2020
Buttigieg is currently running fourth in the RealClearPolitics average of Iowa primary polls.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are all polling ahead of Buttigieg in Iowa, according to the RCP average.
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