White supremacy could be issue that 'ends this country, Pete Buttigieg says

All of the Democratic presidential candidates have condemned Donald Trump's racist comments directed at four congresswomen last week, and the chants of "send her back" directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar at a rally a day later, but Pete Buttigieg took it a step further on Saturday.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was stumping in Iowa over the weekend, where he told ABC News that the issue of white supremacy -- an accusation often lobbed at Trump by the left -- "could be the lurking issue that ends this country."

"That is the only issue that almost ended this country. … We’ve had a lot challenges in this country, but the one that actually almost ended this country in the Civil War was white supremacy," Buttigieg said. "It could be the lurking issue that ends this country in the future, if we don’t wrangle it down in our time."

The number of hate groups as been on the rise under Trump, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The nonprofit, which tracks hate groups, including white nationalist organizations, released a report this spring saying groups have increased by 30% in the past four years.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-supremacy-could-be-issue-that-ends-this-country-presidential-candidate-says/ar-AAEDtkB?li=BBnb7Kz