Mayor Pete Buttigieg is standing up for NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s right to kneel during the national anthem.
“The way I feel about it is the flag that was on my shoulder when I served represented, among other things, our right to free speech,” said Mayor Pete to TMZ while in New York City. “You don’t have to like it, but one of the reasons we serve was to defend that right, the right of peaceful protest and the idea that we can protest what is wrong with our country.”
“If the president had served, maybe he’d feel a little more strongly about some of those freedoms,” Pete added. “And, I get that there’s a lot of strong opinions about this, but that’s part of why we served.”
Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked by the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart during a Q&A at New York City’s 92nd Street Y Wednesday evening about criticism leveled at the openly gay mayor by Vice President Mike Pence and evangelist Franklin Graham.
Buttigieg has been very open about his personal faith as an Episcopalian, as well as the hypocrisy he sees in religion-based attacks.
In April, for example, Graham posted a tweet that described Buttigieg’s sexuality as “sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized.”
Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized. The Bible says marriage is between a man & a woman—not two men, not two women. 2/3
“I guess I would say that we all have a lot to repent for,” replied Buttigieg in a pensive tone. “I have a lot to repent for when it comes to my marriage.”
From there, the 37-year-old mayor ticked off a few personal faults of his own before landing on his answer.
“Moments when I have not been as caring as I should be; moments when I’ve been selfish; moments when I’ve said a harsh word that I wish I could take back,” listed Mayor Pete.
“But one thing that I absolutely should not be repentant for, in the context of my marriage, is the fact that I’m in love with my husband,” he added.
Sharing the ways that being married to his husband, Chasten, has made him a better man, the mayor added, “And yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.”
“That’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me,” Buttigieg said. “Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
And during an appearance on ELLEN, Buttigieg said of the Vice President, “I’m not critical of his faith. I’m critical of bad policies.”
“I don’t have a problem with religion, I’m religious, too,” he added. “I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people and especially in the LGBTQ community.”
Sitting down with Robert Acosta for an hour-long chat for Washington Post Live, Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg says he would handle Donald Trump in a general election similar to the way you handle a ‘crazy uncle.’
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Thursday likened his approach to taking on President Donald Trump to dealing with a “crazy uncle.” “It’s almost like a sort of crazy uncle management,” he said. “Like, he’s there. You’re not going to disrespect his humanity. But he thinks what he thinks. There’s not much you can do about it.”
He later added that he has a “pretty dim view” of Trump’s decision to “use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.” The president was granted five draft deferments — four for college and one for bone spurs in his heel — and never served in the military.
“This is somebody who, I think it’s fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was the child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place,” Buttigieg said.
Mayor Pete was also asked if he thought Trump was racist, to which he replied, “I think so.”
“If you do racist things and say racist things, the question of whether that makes you a racist is almost academic,” Buttigieg said. “The problem with the president is that he does and says racist things and gives cover to other racists.”
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.
Even though some of these hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network in good faith.
Whether it’s going on Fox or going into places where Democrats haven’t been seen much, we have to find people where they are–not change our values. pic.twitter.com/xNHoD0uzE4
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.
I believe that the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her reproductive health and about her body is a national right. I believe it is an American freedom that should be enjoyed by women in every state. The next president needs to be ready to protect those rights. pic.twitter.com/NM5IJkO9GO
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.”
We have to make it less about him and more about what matters. That’s the best way to defeat him. pic.twitter.com/2PxuncQ6bW
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.
Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him. Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems. They got dumped from the Democrats boring debates, and they just want in. They forgot the people…..
….who got them there. Chris Wallace said, “I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance…fascinating biography.” Gee, he never speaks well of me – I like Mike Wallace better…and Alfred E. Newman will never be President!
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.
“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.
• 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.”
• 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:
.@AOC to Gilead CEO: The list price [for Truvada for PrEP] is almost $2,000 in the US. Why is it $8 in Australia? pic.twitter.com/kPnMQSZE0G
• 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.
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.
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.
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?”
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.
