SXSW: Presidential Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Calls Mike Pence ‘Cheerleader of Porn Star Presidency’
As a 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg lacks the state and federal political experience of the opponents he’s facing in the primary. But he showed this evening at CNN’s Democratic Presidential Town Hall at South By Southwest that he can criticize the White House with the poise of a veteran.
After Buttigieg noted the issues he has with Vice President Mike Pence’s former governorship in Indiana, Jake Tapper asked the candidate who he would prefer as president: Donald Trump or Pence.
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“Ugh. Does it have to be between them?” Buttigieg responded.
Buttigieg then talked about the difference between his interpretation of scripture and the interpretation of Pence, who is a hardline Evangelical. He said he focused on protecting strangers and the poor. Pence’s views, Buttigieg said, have “a lot more to do with sexuality and, I don’t know, a certain view of rectitude.”
“How could he allow himself to be the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?” Buttigieg said. “Is it he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Trump?”
If elected, Buttigieg would be the youngest president in history, as well as the first openly gay commander-in-chief. He said instead of pulling for the impeachment of Trump, he would rather see POTUS “decisively defeated at the ballot box.”
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