CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript "Interview with South Bend, IN, Mayor Pete Buttigieg"

Interview

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In the wake of the two horrific shootings, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg today, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, unveiled a new gun control plan he says will combat domestic terrorism and includes an additional $1 billion in funding for the FBI as well as state and local police.

[16:20:04] It includes a plan to work with social media companies to try to identify hateful messages shared online and stop them from spreading, plus banning some types of semi-automatic weapons, closing loopholes so more gun sales require background checks and creating a nationwide gun licensing system.

And Mayor Pete Buttigieg joins me live.

Mayor Buttigieg, thanks so much for joining us.

I want to ask you about the specifics of your plan in a moment. But I want to know, after the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, not to mention in Las Vegas or Orlando, there are always pushing for new gun control restrictions. And Congress doesn't do anything ultimately.

How does a President Buttigieg get it done?

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you begin with the fact that America wants this to get done. How much longer can something go against the will of the American people before we have a break through? That is why my plan focuses on action, political action, policy action and civic action.

Right now, it doesn't seem like there is a penalty to be paid, for example, for Mitch McConnell's decision to prevent the universal background check legislation that passed the House, something, by the way, which enjoyed support from the majority of Republicans as well as Democrats across this country. There is not much of a penalty for the Senate blocking that.

That has got to change and one of the actions we propose that you don't have to be president to do, any one of us to do, to get ahold of your senator. It is recess, and they're at home, they're going to events in their home states. I think they should be back if Washington on an emergency basis dealing with this but until they are, we're urging everybody to reach out, call their senator, find their senator, and get something done about this.

Look, we know there are a number of measures to help save lives. We also know that this is not only a matter of gun safety but of countering violent extremism here at home. The decision that this administration made to reduce funding and cancel programs for dealing with violent extremism is the wrong direction. Time to turn that around before we're dealing with another attack like this in the future.

TAPPER: So, Mr. Mayor, one of your proposals is to end the Senate filibuster, so it will be easier to pass gun restrictions that would make it so only a simple majority of senators have to support a policy for it to pass as opposed to the threshold of 60 votes now. That theoretically would have allowed Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act back in 2017.

Are you sure this is the best way forward?

BUTTIGIEG: Look, if the filibuster -- if it weren't for the filibuster, we would have a lot of measures right now. Remember, you referenced Sandy Hook and a lot of us thought, you know, if children could be murdered at that level, in our country surely that will be the last straw. And legislation moved and was filibustered. It stopped dead in the Senate. We can't go on accepting this. Yes, it creates all kinds of new challenges politically.

But when the will of the American people can be defeated so easily on the floor of the Senate, it is time for a change and it is clear the filibuster, which has a complicated and dark history to begin with has outlived the usefulness to the American people.

TAPPER: Yes, but you didn't acknowledge my point which is, OK, so in Sandy Hook, after Sandy Hook, that would have been passed, but then the Republicans would have taken over the Senate and then it would have been completely undone. I mean, that's the whole point.

BUTTIGIEG: And then they would have been -- yes, and in my view if that happened, they would have lost power in 2018. We could do a lot of counterfactuals, but, you know, I think it is meaningful that the ACA is intact even after a lot of what we've been through. Now, of course, the administration is trying to dismantle it.

Look, the point is, if we're asking ourselves this question of how is it that this -- we say never again and it always happens. The indication is that we've got to make structural change. You can't go on doing the same thing and expect a better result.

Obviously, there are structural problems in our politics when you got an NRA that no longer even speaks for the majority of gun owners and yet is able to get its way in Washington against the will of the American people, when you have these things that America expects in Washington and they can't deliver, something is wrong in the very structure of the way decisions are made in Washington. That's what we've got to change and the filibuster is part of that.

TAPPER: Mr. Mayor, part of your plan is a ban on what are called assault weapons, the certain types of semi-automatic weapons. What does that ban look like in your administration? Does it stop at outlawing sales? Does it include a mandatory assault weapon buyback? Will you require those who own these guns to turn them into the government? What happens?

BUTTIGIEG: My focus is on stopping sales of new ones. Look, there is estimates there will be 130 million more guns on the street by 2030, if nothing changes. Some of which will be the assault or military- style weapons, things like what I carried around when I was in Afghanistan, that just have no business on American streets or anywhere near schools in a country at peace.

So, let's start by banning new sales of these weapons. Then we can figure out other mechanisms to reduce the number that are circulating out there and above all, stop them from falling into the wrong hands, which is why things like not only universal background check but disarming hate through a red flag law that covers hate crime and closing the boyfriend and Charleston loophole are so important, as some of these secondhand weapons do continue to circulate in our country.

[16:25:18] Will it stop every problem, every crime? No. But it will save lives and we have a moral responsibility to do everything we can to save the thousands of lives that are at stake right now.

TAPPER: All right. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg -- thank you so much for your time, sir. Good luck to you on the campaign trail.

BUTTIGIEG: Thanks for having me on.

TAPPER: Bipartisan gun legislation doesn't have to be a fantasy in Washington. Republican Senator Pat Toomey from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania co-wrote a bill on background checks, but will that move forward? Senator Toomey will join me next.

Stay with us.

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