U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was asked on CNN’s State of the Union for his opinion on the new anti-trans video released by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘s campaign.
Presented as an anti-Trump video, the mashup contains anti-trans rhetoric interspliced with a multitude of ostensibly masculine imagery in an effort to distinguish DeSantis’s positions on LGBTQ tolerance from those of Trump, who is portrayed as more lenient. (The video dropped on the Twitter account DeSantis War Room.)
To wrap up “Pride Month,” let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 30, 2023
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CNN’s Dana Bash asked Buttigieg what he made of the pugilistic DeSantis video and what it signaled for the candidate, who is running against former President Trump — and a host of other hopefuls — for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Buttigieg, who is gay, replied after a pregnant pause. “You know,” he said, “I’m going to choose my words carefully, partially because I’m appearing as Secretary, so I can’t talk about campaigns.”
“And I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders,” Buttigieg said. “And get to the bigger issues I see whenever I see the stuff in the policy space…”
Buttigieg went on to report that he spent his week traveling around the country to places that are benefiting from infrastructure spending as part of the Biden administration’s bipartisan bill which allowed critical spending in struggling areas including hard-hit parts of Kentucky and North Dakota.
Buttigieg on DeSantis video: I'm going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders.. pic.twitter.com/fbDpoEBrg7
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 2, 2023
Buttigieg circles back to DeSantis at the end of the video clip and says, “I just don’t understand the mentality of someone who gets up in the morning thinking he’s gonna prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard hit community that is already so vulnerable right now.”
