BEN SMITH: Mayor - thanks for doing this! Can you send over a selfie, and tull us where you are?

LIS: Yo it’s Lis. Give us a sec.

BS: Give the man his phone lis! And take your time - we can go back and forth

LIS: Pipe daon. We are doing a and a with the press. Q and a *. People who actually showed us the respect of flying to Iowa instead of texting us from their couch in Brooklyn.

BS: I am on a swiveling startupy chair plastic chair in Manhattan thank you very much

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Mayor Pete Buttigieg talking to reporters on a bus.

LIS: Pete rn - not a buzzfeeed reporter in sight. Sad!

BS: Heny just got off the damn bus.

LIS: Henry was with us all day yesterday. Jinx! Look just trying to keep you on your toes.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Selfie of Pete Buttigieg

PETE BUTTIGIEG: Hello! Pete here

BS: Where’s the bus?

PB: Somewhere near Elkader. Between Osborne and Mederville, to be precise

BS: So you were in college for the original Straight Talk Express. Do you think this is basically the same, in the age of Twitter, or totally different?

PB: High school actually! I think similar-and it’s interesting no on has attempted this since-but with social media the whole thing is more fast paced

BS: You are spending a lot of time close quarters with the press. What are you learning about them? (/us)

PB: They can be repetitive, just like politicians! But some good questions are starting to emerge. Big picture stuff.

BS: Your conversation with Zach about giving blood surprised a lot of people I think.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: @Chas10Buttigieg tweet from 4/6/19 reading, “Today, if Buttigief or I wish to donate blood, we must abstain from se for one year, or our blood is deemed unfit for use. Gay people are still classified as so great an HIV risk that it’s easier to reject our blood.” Link to an Atlantic article titled, “Yes, It Matters that Pete Buttigieg Is Gay”

BS: What’s the policy issue? Should the FDA change the rules?

PB: It needs to be re-examined. A good policy would actually be based on risk, not sexual orientation alone. Especially given current blood safety testing protocols, this policy seems backward-looking. A lot of countries have moved in the direction of individual risk assessment or their evidence based approaches, with better results.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: @CNNPolitics Tweet from 9/19/29 reading, “Pete Buttigieg swipes at Elizabeth Warren for being “evasive” on health care

BS: Isn’t the lesson of Trump that people want boldness and clarity -- rather than pages of detail? That they want a serious plan, and you’re being too literal?

PB: I think they want honesty and clarity. We should be able to say what we’re for, what it means, and defend it. (Also the “lesson of Trump” should never be to be more like Trump.)

BS: Fair! You’ve talked a lot about the generational shift -- but a lot of young people really love Bernie and Warren. And you seem to be the kind of young man who really, really appeals to older voters, many people’s moms. How does that fit, or change, your view of the generational shift?

PB: Angel smiling emoji

BS: That’s it?

PB: One thing I’ve noticed is older voters are often the ones most open to (or proactively excited about) generational change. Maybe they are less awed by experience after years of seeing people of different ages succeed and fail in different ways, maybe they’re thinking about their kids and grandkids. We saw the same strong pattern when I was first running for mayor. Based on rope line comments we definitely seem to be doing very well with the mother-in-law vote.

BS: Well thank you for doing this Mr. Mayor. I gather from Lis that is was a challenge.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Screenshot of text exchange with Lis showing a picture of Pete Buttigieg on the phone and a text exchange reading: Ben Smith: Open to questions ideas ofc.
LIS: He wants to kill me rn. I’m making him do 2m things st once.
Ben Smith: I feel like I should screenshot and text him our exchange.

PB: Ha-just trying to get her to let me concentrate versus multitask! Glad it worked out

BS: Prayer hands emojis