2020 Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has attacked Mike Pence’s connection to white nationalism.
On Buzzfeed News‘s online show AM to DM, co-host Saeed Jones asked Buttigieg about his previous comments in which he seemed to imply that Pence had betrayed his values by joining the Trump administration, even though Pence has been against all pro-LGBTQ legislation for his entire career.
Buttigieg conceded that Pence has been “consistently horrible” and “holds beliefs that are sincerely awful,” and he went back to the previous topic of white nationalism.
“In terms of white nationalism, I’m sure that he does not consider himself to be a racist. But I think the moment you come on board with a project like the Trump campaign or the Trump/Pence administration, you are at best complicit.”
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“And the process that has given cover for a flourishing and a resurgence of white nationalism in our midst,” he said.
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Earlier in the interview, Buttigieg said that the current resurgence of racism “creates an obligation for anyone in a position of authority or power — or even just visibility — to speak out about why it’s wrong, why it’s not consistent with American values and why if we really want to talk about security and safety, that has less to do about putting up a wall from sea to shining sea than making sure that people are not continuing to be radicalized into violent white nationalism with what seems at best to be a level of negligence, if not encouragement, coming from the highest office in the land.”
Buttigieg was also asked about a recent Washington Post column that said that he would not be the first gay president, that that honor would fall to James Buchanan, the first “bachelor” president who had some close relationships with other men.
“My gaydar is not great to begin with and definitely doesn’t work over long stretches of time,” Buttigieg responded.
