By Emily Goodin, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com
Published: 16:48 BST, 4 April 2019 | Updated: 17:56 BST, 4 April 2019
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South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a breakout candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, argued Thursday that the word socialist has 'lost all power - especially for my generation of power.'
Buttigieg also is teasing a big announcement on April 14 in with a video on Twitter that jokes about how difficult it is to pronounce his last name, calling it the 'first hurdle' he had to overcome when he announced he was exploring a bid for the White House.
The 37 year old is pushing himself as a candidate 'for a new era' as he undertakes a long shot bid for the presidency. And he's pushing back against party labels as Democrats face a battle between the liberal left and their more centrists wings.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is teasing a big announcement on April 14
'The president is adopting a tactic that takes us back to the darkest days of the '50s when you could use the word socialist to kill somebody's career or to kill an idea but that trick has been tried so many times that I think it's losing all meaning,' Buttigieg said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
'The Affordable Care Act was a conservative idea that Democrats borrowed and called that socialist so it's like the boy who cried wolf. It's lost all power - especially for my generation of voters. Folks want to know whether an idea is a good idea or not and slapping a label on it especially in a careless way that doesn't make any sense, I don't think it moves the debate,' he added.
On January 23, Buttigieg declared he was looking at forming an exploratory committee to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. A town hall meeting at South by Southwest in March - where he called out Vice President Mike Pence,
