Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg made his way to the Central Valley on June 3, giving his supporters a chance to ask hard-hitting questions in a live town hall hosted by MSNBC HardBall’s Chris Matthews.

Lighting rigs, cameras and a sea of almost a thousand faces surrounded the stage at Fresno State’s John Wright Theatre to hear Buttigieg speak about issues that affect the Central Valley.

Matthews described Buttigieg by saying, there has not been a candidate since Barack Obama who has ignited as much buzz and as quickly as Buttigieg has.

Buttigieg was welcomed on stage by a roaring crowd and spent the hourlong segment answering questions from both Matthews and the audience on everything from a national gun registry to impeaching President Donald Trump.

Impeaching Trump

Buttigieg was asked by a voter if he supported House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, “slow, cautious approach towards the impeachment inquiry.”

Buttigieg said he believes Trump deserves to be impeached but added the impeachment is a process and it had better be airtight. Buttigieg also said he would think twice before offering strategic advice to Pelosi.

Gun registry

Matthews asked Buttigieg how the national gun registry he supports would work. Buttigieg responded by saying it is a matter of getting it right now going forward. ­

“We can start on a go-forward basis, and then we’ll have a system we can actually use to look at what we can do retroactively, too,” Buttigieg said.

Tariffs

Buttigieg strongly criticized Trump’s trade policies as a pattern of poking people in the eye to see what will happen.

Buttigieg said this politically motivated gamesmanship will end up hurting farmers, workers and consumers. ­

“A tariff is a tax,” he said. “If you believe Republicans don’t raise taxes, that’s what they’re doing right now.”

Gephardt

Midway through the segment, Buttigieg was surprised when he was asked a question remotely by video from Congressman Dick Gephardt.

This moment turned the tables from 16 years ago when a young Buttigieg asked a question of Gephardt, who was seeking the Democratic nomination that year, during a televised event.

Buttigieg had pointed out Gephardt’s decision not to attend a youth-focused Rock the Vote forum.

“Do you think young people’s votes matter in the campaign,” Buttigieg asked Gephardt in the footage from 2004 that was played at the town hall on Monday.

Gephardt responded by saying he did care about young voters and that he had a prior commitment in the all-important state of Iowa that conflicted with the Rock the Vote forum.

Gephardt offered some advice to young Buttigieg: “Get involved in public life. Give back to your country. Don’t just take from it.”

Almost two decades later, Gephardt got his chance to flip sides and asked Buttigieg a question of his own.

“I get asked all the time by people all over the country, ‘What about the future of our democracy of America?’ My answer is very simple: I’ve always been optimistic about America because the people are good and they’re good citizens,” Gephardt said to Buttigieg. “You’re out there meeting thousands of them. Am I still right?”

Buttigieg agreed with Gephardt but added that people can be capable of good and bad things.

“People just want to know that they’re going to be OK. But people can have good and bad things called out from within us. We’re all capable of good and bad things. Just ask somebody you love,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg also added that people and communities become worse when they don’t feel safe.

“People have been made less secure, and it makes it possible for a cynical leader to draw out the worst of us.”