Tag: Pete Buttigieg

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Confident Pete Buttigieg Makes Strong Showing During Fox News Town Hall

Openly gay Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg had an impressive showing Sunday night as he answered questions at a Fox News town hall event hosted by anchor Chris Wallace.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Openly gay Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg had an impressive showing Sunday night as he answered questions at a Fox News town hall event hosted by anchor Chris Wallace.

While most Democratic candidates aren’t heading over to the conservative cable news outlet for coverage, Buttigieg defended the appearance. “If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us,” he told Wallace.

The 37-year-old mayor is the third Democratic contender to show up to a Fox News event. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) participated in a Q&A for the conservative cable news outlet in April, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) appeared at a network town hall earlier in May.

Last week, however, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) declined an invitation from Fox News to appear at a similar event.

“A lot of folks in my party were critical of me even doing this with Fox News,” Buttigieg told Wallace. “And I get where that’s coming from, especially when you see what goes on with some of the opinion hosts on this network.”

“I mean, when you got Tucker Carlson saying that immigrants make American dirty; when you got Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps—summer camps—then, there is a reason why anyone has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem,” he continued.

“But, I also believe that even though some of those hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network who do it in good faith,” he concluded.

Across a wide variety of topics, Buttigieg answered questions without pause or having to qualify his responses.

In the aftermath of Alabama’s newly-passed ban on abortion, Wallace asked Buttigieg his thoughts on the legislation. Buttigieg answered that he trusts “women to draw the line.”

“I trust women to draw the line when it is their own body,” he said. “I believe that the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her own reproductive health and her own body is a national right, I believe it is an American freedom.”

The decision to have an abortion “is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made,” he added.

Asked how he felt he would handle attacks and tweets from Donald Trump in a general election, Buttigieg replied, “The tweets are…I don’t care.”

The answer spurred a big round of applause from the audience attending the event in Claremont, New Hampshire.

Buttigieg did note that it was “hard for anyone to look away” when the Trumpster tweets, but qualified that saying “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.”

At the end of the hour-long town hall, Buttigieg was given a chance to address the audience directly. His appeal was met with a standing ovation, surprising Wallace.

The Hill reports the town hall event drew 1.1 million viewers.

The appearance clearly got under the president’s skin as Trump criticized his favorite network via Twitter.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg Has The Perfect Answer To A Young Girl’s Question About Bullying

Mayor Pete Buttigieg addresses how to handle a bully
Mayor Pete Buttigieg addresses how to handle a bully

Mayor Pete Buttigieg drew questions from a fishbowl at a town hall appearance in Iowa City last night, and ended up offering advice to young person who had been bullied.

Eleven-year-old Rebecca Johann told ABC News that she has experienced bullying and wanted the mayor’s advice on how to handle it.

Addressing Rebecca and the other 600 attendees at the Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon, Buttigieg admitted he had faced bullying himself.

He began his answer by giving props to the girl for being willing to discuss about the subject. “Part of the advice I’d give would is to be willing to talk about it, so I think you’re leading the way on that – thank you for raising the question,” he said.

“I had experiences with bullying when I was growing up,” Buttigieg told the young girl. “Everybody who’s different can be bullied. And the secret is – everybody’s different in some way.“

“It’s tough, it can make you feel angry, it can make you feel worse, and it can bring out the worst in you, too,” he added.

“The first thing you’ve got to know is you have nothing to be ashamed of,” drawing applause from the crowd. “And the second part, this is a much harder part to remember is that the person who is bullying you probably has something a little broken in them, and it’s part of why they’re trying to get your attention.”

Referencing the current occupant of the Oval Office who’s made a career out of trying to bully folks, the 37-year-old candidate added, “I think it really matter that we have a president that doesn’t show that type of behavior – it’s one of the reasons I’m running for president.”

And the crowd goes wild!!!

“So, the hard part, if you really want to pop that balloon and take the air out of that bully, is to turn to a bully and ask if they are ok.,” continued Buttigieg. “And they won’t know what to do with it.

Watch the clip below for the rest of Mayor Pete’s answer.

It’s worth noting that the mayor directly addressed young Rebecca for the entirety of his response. He didn’t ‘play to the audience’ or make the moment about himself.

#Leadership

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‘Mayor Pete’ Makes His First Appearance On SNL

Kate McKinnon, Paul Rudd and Beck Bennett on SNL


“I’m just a Harvard-educated, multilingual, war veteran, Rhodes scholar. I’m just like you.”

In what is demonstrably a show of his impact so far on the presidential race, Democratic hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg, played by Saturday Night Live host Paul Rudd, made his first SNL appearance on last night’s season finale, as a guest on The View.

Leslie Jones’s Whoopi Goldberg welcomes Mayor Pete saying, “I heard when you grow up, you want to be president.”

“Well, I am grown up,” Mayor Pete tells the gaggle of daily talkers. “I may only be 37 years old, but I do feel like I represent everyday Americans. I’m just a Harvard-educated, multilingual, war veteran, Rhodes scholar. I’m just like you.”

Asked about being the first openly gay man who’s a serious contender for the White House, Pete responds, “I do want to say that I wouldn’t be running for president if I didn’t believe America was ready to accept not only a gay man but a boring gay man in the public eye.”

Before the sketch draws to a close, Beck Bennett offers his take as Chasten Buttigieg, our first possible First Gentleman: “Wow, this is all so new to me,” he says. “Usually I’m just home with the dogs.”

But in the end, the ladies all seem to have eyes for only one presidential candidate, leaving the Buttigieg men a little confounded.

Watch below.

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News Round-Up: May 17, 2019

Ryan Worley (photo: Vinnie Cassidy)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk and Chippendale Ryan Worley (above) shares this with the caption, “When you didn’t know someone was taking your photo…” I’m thinking Mr. Worley should get used to folks taking his pic a lot.

• In an interview with Fox News, Democratic White House hopeful (and openly gay) Mayor Pete Buttigieg references the current president saying, “I’m old enough to remember when Republicans talked a lot about character in the Oval Office.”

• Nevada has become the fourth state to ban the use of so-called gay and trans panic defenses, following California, Rhode Island and Illinois.

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) grilled Daniel O’Day, the CEO of Gilead Sciences, over the high costs of the pharmaceutical company’s pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication Truvada.

As she correctly points out, Gilead is making billions a year from Truvada, but the core research for PrEP was paid for and done by the U.S. government. Watch AOC push for a decent answer:

• Following Alabama lawmakers, the Missouri House of Representatives has passed an anti-abortion bill that bans abortions after eight weeks into a pregnancy, and does not have an exception for victims of rape or incest.

• E! Online reports that Queer Eye co-stars Karamo Brown and Antoni Porowski had “an extreme amount of conflict” during the shooting of Season One of the Bravo series.

• Check out the first look trailer for the upcoming new super-hero series, Batwoman, on the CW this fall on Sundays. Australian actress Ruby Rose stars as the openly lesbian crime fighter.

Almost two millions views on YouTube in a day. But the like/dislike ratio is something to see – 87k thumbs down (homophobes) versus 36k thumbs up.

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Candidates Offer Rainbow+ Campaign Gear For Pride

With Pride Month just weeks away, some Democratic presidential candidates are serving up LGBTQ-themed Pride campaign swag adorned with rainbow stripes.
(via PeteForAmerica.com)

With Pride Month just weeks away, some Democratic presidential candidates are serving up LGBTQ-themed Pride campaign swag adorned with rainbow stripes.

For the record: yes, I know Donald Trump has a lone rainbow t-shirt on his campaign site. He also openly opposes The Equality Act, so, there you go…

It’s probably not surprising that Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the only openly gay White House contender, is offering the most variety in campaign Pride merchandise – t-shirts, stickers, backpacks, pins – so you can show your support and Pride all at the same time.

The gear comes in not only rainbow stripes, but the familiar pink/white/blue colors of the transgender flag as well.

Interestingly, Buttigieg’s rainbow utilizes the new version of the Pride flag that includes black and brown stripes meant to embrace LGBTQ people of color.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is getting into the Pride mood as well offering a “Persist” t-shirt with rainbow colors.

Warren’s camp got a little creative with the colors as well since her buzz word “persist” has seven letters, so they added an extra touch of light purple to their rainbow.

On a ‘Pride for the People’ page of her campaign website, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) utilizes the traditional Pride rainbow stripes with her first name (which just happens to have six letters), but adds the newer black/brown stripes to her buzzword t-shirt, “Fearless.”

In the past, I’ll admit I’ve purchased Hillary and Obama t’s during campaign seasons, so I’ll probably snag something from the list here.

But even if you don’t want to get political, you can still get your Pride on in style with merchandise from Target (a whole treasure trove of rainbow items there) or sneakers from Adidas or Converse, who put out their own annual Pride kicks.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg ‘Slow Jams The News’ On The Tonight Show

Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night, and took part in one of the best recurring segments on the late night talker, 'Slow Jam the News.'

Democratic presidential contender Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night, and took part in one of the late night talker’s recurring segments, ‘Slow Jam the News.’

Mayor Pete mainly stuck to introductory campaign info with Fallon and Tariq Trotter of the Roots serving up the one-liners.

Although, in one exchange, Buttigieg shared his recent appearance on Fox News Sunday was meant as a gesture of inclusivity wanting “everyone to join this campaign, Democrats and Republicans.”

“Democrats and Republicans?” queried a honey-voice Fallon. “So what you’re saying is – you go both ways?”

“No, I’m just gay,” Buttigieg responded simply.

And the crowd goes wild…

Watch the clip below.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg Rejects ‘Identity Politics,’ Urges Democrats To ‘Tear Down Walls’ That Divide Them

Mayor Pete Buttigieg addresses 14th annual Las Vegas HRC gala

Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg delivered the keynote address last night at the annual gala Human Rights Campaign dinner in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 37-year-old from South Bend, Indiana, used the speech to address what some have viewed as a possible vulnerability as he competes for the Democratic nomination for president, and that’s being a white male from the Midwest when many in his party feel a woman or person of color would best represent today’s Democratic Party.

Buttigieg spoke of his own experiences as a gay man in a predominantly straight society. But he also pushed back on the idea that people of different marginalized groups share in “equivalencies” in how they have experienced discrimination.

“I may be part of the LGBTQ community, but being a gay man doesn’t even tell me what it’s like to be a trans woman of color in that same community, let alone an undocumented mother of four or a disabled veteran or a displaced autoworker,” he told the audience assembled at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

Mayor Pete warned of a “crisis of belonging in this country,” saying that “so-called identity politics” that underscore how one person hasn’t walked in another’s shoes only exacerbates our differences.

“Something that is true,” acknowledged the Harvard and Oxford grad. “But, it doesn’t get us very far.”

The mayor noted that identity politics often serve to divide folks who have more in common than less.

“The more you know about exclusion, the more you think about belonging”

Addressing “divisive lines of thinking” present in today’s American politics, Buttigieg spoke of being told “to choose between supporting an auto worker and a trans woman of color, without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color, and she definitely needs all the security she can get.”

“The wall I worry about most isn’t the president’s fantasy wall on the Mexican border that will never get built anyway,” he said, referencing Donald Trump’s infamous border wall. “What I worry about are the very real walls being put up between us as we get divided and carved up.”

“And what every gay person has in common with every excluded person of every kind is knowing what it’s like to see a wall,” he continued. “I am ready to use my story, my energy, my alliances, and yes, my privilege, to throw myself into tearing down those walls.”

“Each of us has a story that can either separate us, or connect us to those around us,” he added. “Yes, I am gay, and I am the son of an immigrant, and an Army brat, and I’m a husband, and I am a musician, and I’m an Episcopalian. And I’m a Democrat.”

Along the way, the mayor also touched on a wide range of progressive policy positions, including cybersecurity, gerrymandering, LGBTQ rights, reproductive health, labor unions, climate change, and big money in politics.

“We can’t let this election be about the president,” he said. “Because if Americans see us spend all our time talking about him, they’ll be left with the question: ‘Who is talking about us?’”

Buttigieg urged Democrats to start talking not only about their policies, but the values behind those policies.

“It’s time for us to get comfortable once again talking about values … like freedom,” he said. “We have allowed conservatives to monopolize the language of freedom. But we know that freedom isn’t just about freedom from, it’s about freedom to. Not just freedom from regulation, but freedom to live a life of your choosing.”

The HRC appearance capped a west coast campaign swing that included fund-raisers at the home of Gwyneth Paltrow, and another at The Abbey, a popular West Hollywood gay bar.

Watch Buttigieg’s full speech at the 14th annual Human Rights Campaign dinner in Las Vegas below.

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Buttigieg Claps Back At Trump’s ‘Alfred E. Neuman’ Nickname: “I Guess It’s A Generational Thing”

Donald Trump (L) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (R)

Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg clapped back at Donald Trump after the president attempted a new nickname for the mayor.

In an interview with Politico, Trump dismissed the 37-year-old White House hopeful by referencing the freckled, gap-toothed Alfred E. Neuman character of Mad Magazine fame.

“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” said the Trumpster.

When asked about the verbal slap, Buttigieg responded without a pause.

“I’ll be honest, I had to Google that, I guess it’s a generational thing,” said the mayor. “I didn’t get the reference. It’s kind of funny I guess, but he’s also the president of the United States and I’m surprised he’s not spending more time trying to salvage this deal with China.”

Meow!

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Military Records Offer Insight Into Mayor Pete’s Service In Afghanistan

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (images via social media)

Political news site The Hill has obtained military documents that offer some insight into Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s time spent in Afghanistan as a Navy intelligence officer.

Buttigieg has mentioned on the campaign trail he took a seven month leave during his first term as mayor to serve in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom launched by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

According to The Hill, the documents show the then-32-year-old served in the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) in Kabul from March to September of 2014. The files indicate that assignment put him in “an imminent danger pay area.”

The focus of the ATFC was to identify and disrupt “insurgent financial support networks in Afghanistan” related to the Taliban and Al-Qaida.

The Hillreports his duties included representing ATFC at “high level briefings, and he also “coordinated intelligence sharing and targeting deconfliction” methods with several organizations.

As Buttigieg mentioned in his book Shortest Way Home, he imagined he would spend most of his time in Afghanistan “behind a sophisticated computer terminal in a secure area.” But it turned out he had to venture some 119 times “outside the wire,” which meant leaving his fairly secure base. During those trips into Kabul, he served as vehicle commander on convoy security detail.

While he’s never claimed to have engaged in direct combat, Buttigieg did describe in his book the dangers unpredictable Kabul neighborhoods could present.

“In a ritual to be repeated dozens of times, I would heave my armored torso into the driver’s seat of a Land Cruiser, chamber a round in my M4, lock the doors and wave a gloved goodbye to the Macedonian gate guard,” wrote Buttigieg.

“My vehicle would cross outside the wire and into the boisterous Afghan city, entering a world infinitely more interesting and ordinary and dangerous than our zone behind the blast walls at ISAF headquarters,” he added.

Even in an armored vehicle, he was trained to be on the lookout for possible explosive devices hidden along the roads, or a number of telltale signs of a surprise ambush around any corner. “A suddenly empty neighborhood. A nervous-looking lone driver of a vehicle with a heavy trunk load. An obviously male hand coming out from underneath a woman’s blue burqa.”

Mayor Pete is one of the few Democratic presidential candidates whose resume includes active duty military experience.

Donald Trump did not serve in the military due to reported ‘bone spurs’in his feet.

(Source: The Hill)

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Mayor Pete Heckled In Texas, Beto O’Rourke Denounces The Haters

During a speech to Democrats in Dallas, Texas, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was interrupted five different times by hecklers in a 10-minute period.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg in Dallas

During a speech to Democrats in Dallas, Texas, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was interrupted five different times by hecklers in a 10-minute period.

The group was organized by Randall Terry, who also followed Buttigieg in Iowa last month.

Pausing while one of the hecklers was escorted out, Buttigieg resumed speaking about his military career recalling “that moment when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan for the purpose of defending that gentleman’s freedom of speech.”

Fellow candidate Beto O’Rourke, who had a campaign appearance in nearby Fort Worth, denounced the hecklers, tweeting: “Texans don’t stand for this kind of homophobia and hatred. Mayor Pete, we are grateful you came to Texas and hope to see you and Chasten back again soon.”

Here’s the report from the local CBS News affiliate: