Morning Joe: Mayor Pete Is The Future Of The Democratic Party, But Maybe Not In 2020

Morning Joe‘s Joe Scarborough lavished praise on South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg Monday morning following the Democratic presidential hopeful’s town hall on Fox News. While Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski spoke in glowing terms about the young mayor, their support was qualified.

“Well, the reaction to Mayor Pete has been remarkable, especially for a nation that has learned to become very cynical of politicians of all stripes,” Scarborough said.

“But you could see the response on Twitter, you could see the response — hear the response from friends and neighbors just like after his announcement and it’s quite unlike anything that I know that you and I have ever seen.”

“And looking at Mayor Pete last night, and once again seeing this remarkable response, I was reminded of one of the most famous lines by any rock critic in music history and that line was ‘I have seen the future of rock ‘n’ roll and it is Bruce Springsteen’. John Landau wrote that.He was a pretty smart guy to write that in ‘73, ‘74.”

“Well, I’ve seen the future of the Democratic Party and it’s Mayor Pete. It may not be in 2020, perhaps it’s in 2024 or beyond, but this guy is going to play an important role in the mainstreaming of the Democratic Party for many years to come. And believe you me, that is exactly what he does, regardless of ideology, Mayor Pete main streams a Democratic Party much in the same way Nancy Pelosi fights every day to make sure that her house caucus does the same and that Joe Biden’s doing on the campaign trail today.”

“I find him to be a really exciting candidate,” Brzezinski said, before showing clips from Buttigieg’s town hall. Buttigieg and the youngest candidate in the field, so praise like this from MSNBC hosts is welcome. However, Brzezinski and Scarborough have come out strongly for former Vice President Joe Biden, citing his experience, in contrast with Buttigieg’s youth.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.