<em>The Atlantic</em> Politics Daily: When Pete Buttigieg Was a Consultant

2. Consulting called. Buttigieg joined the consulting firm McKinsey as a 24-year-old, a stint that has led to suspicion on the party’s left flank about his seriousness when it comes to taking on corporate interests.

3. He’s one of just two veterans left in the Democratic primary; he served as tour in Afghanistan as a Navy intelligence officer. (But his journey into military service began with Pete, the a war protester.)

4. Buttigieg came out in 2015 at age 33. Jamie Kirchick writes that a President Pete would have the potential to transform the relationship between gay and straight America.

5. He served two terms as the mayor of South Bend. How did he balance his day job with the demands of a major presidential campaign? Lots and lots of remote work, amid local crises.

6. The frontrunner limelight comes with scrutiny. The same sterling resume that may have given Buttigieg a leg up in the 2020 race has also come back to bite him. After mounting questions about his time at McKinsey, he then argued that a nondisclosure agreement meant he couldn’t talk about it.

Our campaign reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere spoke with the mayor as he finally releases his client list today.

I asked him why he seemed to struggle so much last week when peppered with questions about McKinsey that he couldn’t answer without violating his NDA. And why not just violate the NDA, given in what foul odor McKinsey now is.

Read Isaac’s interview with Buttigieg.

—Saahil Desai

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« SNAPSHOT »

(Luis Torres / AFP / Getty)

For the final month of 2019, our photo editor Alan Taylor reviews some of the major news events and moments of 2019. He also looks for images of joy amid difficult moments.

In this photograph, American and Mexican families play on seesaws installed through the barrier along the Mexican border with the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in July

See more photographs here.

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« IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS »

(CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY)

2. “By yelling falsehoods loudly enough, they hope to exhaust anyone with the ambition to determine the truth of the matter.”

An investigation was warranted; some surveillance methods were highly problematic.

Those were roughly the conclusions of Monday’s comprehensive report from the Department of Justice inspector general’s probe into how the Mueller investigation came about (yes, we’re still on this topic).

The president and his supporters, though, still aren’t buying it, and maybe never will, Adam Serwer argues:

The numbness to every new Trump revelation, no matter how shocking, is in part a product of the president’s success in fatiguing anyone who might be interested in what the facts are.

2. “And suddenly, the Trump administration spoke out on human rights.”

A full picture of the violence inflicted on protesters in Iran over the last month is only just emerging—and the administration has been vocal in its support of demonstrators.