Pence and GOP push back on Buttigieg's criticism
WASHINGTON — Mike Pence’s office and Republicans are pushing back after Democrat Pete Buttigieg starting invoking the vice president on the campaign trail as a bogeyman to call out the GOP for hostility to same-sex marriage and other gay rights policies.
Buttigieg’s condemnation of Pence’s record on gay rights has resonated particularly strongly with Democrats because of their longstanding personal experience working together. Pence was governor of Indiana when Buttigieg came out as gay and then sought and won re-election as mayor of South Bend.
Buttigieg starting ramping up the line of attack on Pence over the weekend, when he said he wishes “the Mike Pences of the world would understand that if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.” He also said his same-sex marriage “has made me a better man, and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.”
Today, Republicans started hitting back, pointing out that Pence has actually praised Buttigieg in the past — including the day after Buttigieg came out as gay in 2015.
The vice president’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, tweeted out a link to Pence saying he held the South Bend mayor “in the highest personal regard. I see him as a dedicated public servant and a patriot.” And the Indiana Republican Party blasted out reminders of times when Pence complimented Buttigieg’s work as mayor and deployment to Afghanistan in 2014.
“Now that Buttigieg is spending more time in Washington, D.C., Iowa and New Hampshire and neglecting his day job in South Bend, it seems that some of his recent statements have become detached from reality — especially when it comes to Vice President Mike Pence,” says Kyle Hupfer, the Indiana GOP chairman.
Even the vice president’s wife, Karen Pence, took issue with Buttigieg’s critiques, telling Fox News Radio on Tuesday that Buttigieg was attacking her husband “to get some notoriety.” She said Buttigieg and Pence “really have always had a great relationship.”
“I think in our country we need to understand you shouldn’t be attacked for what your religious beliefs are,” Karen Pence said.
Buttigieg pushed back on Twitter today, writing that “People will often be polite to you in person, while advancing policies that harm you and your family. You will be polite to them in turn, but you need not stand for such harms. Instead, you push back, honestly and emphatically.”
In the past, Buttigieg has also described Pence as having “fanatical” views about homosexuality and said that “it chills a lot of us, especially in the LGBTQ community, to see that somebody like that can be in that kind of position of power.”