Pete Buttigieg smartly explains why he appears on Fox News so often

Out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently explained why he regularly appears on Fox News, the right-wing media outlet, even though it is anti-LGBTQ+ and very pro-Republican. Buttigieg has appeared on the network so frequently that at the start of his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, he joked, “I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me from Fox News.” 

“The reason I do it is because I think it’s important … to meet people where they are, and recognize that I can’t be mad at somebody for not embracing our message if they’ve literally never heard it,” Buttigieg said at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics’s Youth Vote Fest on Wednesday when asked about his frequent Fox News appearances. “The more one-sided the news network is, the less likely [its viewers] will have heard [Democratic messages], unless I literally go there and share it. And I think it’s especially true in this election, because I know a lot of folks who watch Fox News and count on Fox News.”

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Buttigieg then used the opportunity to criticize former President Donald Trump, including the fact that violent crime went down after his presidency, that he got five medical deferments for bone spurs during his teenage and young adult years to avoid being sent to fight in Vietnam, and he allegedly called dead veterans “suckers” and “losers.”

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“I want [Fox News viewers] to at least have heard that, maybe more often than they would have [otherwise],” Buttigieg said to the Youth Vote Fest audience.

“I know veterans who watch Fox News. I want to ask them to consider the difference between a ticket, led by somebody who faked a disability, getting a doctor’s note, taking advantage of him being a teenage multimillionaire so that he wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam … compared to, a ticket led by the administration that delivered the PACT Act that made sure that veterans who I served with in Iraq and Afghanistan [and were exposed] to burn pits, get the cancer treatment that they need,” Buttigieg noted, adding that the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), spent 24 years in uniform in the National Guard.

“I always visualize people who I know who I disagree with and who are just maybe tuning in,” Buttigieg concluded. “I don’t think they’re going to see me on Fox for five minutes and see the light and suddenly become liberal Democrats. But I know that we’re having a healthier conversation if they’ve at least heard what somebody like me has to say.”

Pete Buttigieg on why he goes on Fox News is worth a few minutes of your time pic.twitter.com/ohyqEIjLDz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2024

During the DNC, anchors with the PBS News Hour asked Buttigieg if Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris should also be appearing more regularly on Fox News.

“Well, you know, each of us has different kind of tactical decisions about where we go and how we do it, but I’m proud to speak on Fox News and other conservative outlets on behalf of this campaign because I believe in this campaign, and I think it’s especially important in places where certain arguments—not even arguments, just certain facts—might not otherwise be aired” he answered.

“I imagine most viewers of Fox News are sincerely unaware that immigrants are no more likely to commit a crime than somebody who was born here, because that’s just not a fact that gets mentioned on their airways very often,” he continued. “So to the extent they’re willing to invite me on there, I think it’s important for me to take the opportunity to share it.”

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