Pete Buttigieg shuts down Mike Pence gay feud question at CNN town hall

Pete Buttigieg faces anti-gay chants in Iowa

Pete Buttigieg has bluntly shut down a question over his criticism of Vice President Mike Pence’s attitude to LGBT+ rights.

Speaking to Anderson Cooper during CNN’s town hall event on Monday night (April 22), Buttigieg was asked about an ongoing dispute between the presidential candidate and the vice president.

Cooper asked Buttigieg to respond directly to comments made by US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who compared Buttigieg to Jussie Smollett for his attacks on Pence.

“I’m not a master fisherman but I know bait when I see it and I’m not gonna take it,” Buttigieg snapped back.

The Mike Pence and Pete Buttigieg dispute

Pence and Buttigieg, who are both from Indiana, have been publicly arguing over their Christian values.

On April 10 Pence told CNBC that Buttigieg “said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally.”

Earlier Buttigieg had accused Pence of “having a problem” with the fact that he’s gay.

Speaking at an April 7 event arranged by the Victory Fund, which supports LGBT+ candidates. he said: “If me being gay was a choice, it was made far, far above my pay grade.”

“That’s the thing that I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand – that if you got a problem with who I am – your problem is not with me, your quarrel sir, is with my creator.”

Pence once claimed that same-sex marriage would lead to the “deterioration of the family” and “societal collapse,” and has been accused of supporting so-called conversion therapy, which he denies.


Pete Buttigieg’s views on voter rights raise eyebrows

During the town hall, Buttigieg was also asked about voter rights and said people shouldn’t be allowed to vote while incarcerated.

Earlier in his town hall fellow Democrat, Bernie Sanders argued that prisoners should be able to vote, while Kamala Harris didn’t oppose Sanders’ argument, saying that “we can have that conversation.”

Buttigieg said, “While incarcerated? No, I don’t think so.”

Buttigieg’s comments went viral after a Twitter user posted a video of one woman’s shocked reaction to the comments.

Twitter users then piled in on the social media thread, many disagreeing with Buttigieg’s point of view.

“If incarcerated individuals shouldn’t vote, then their labor shouldn’t be exploited by major corporations/entities for what amounts to pennies either,” one person wrote.

Another said: “Pete, I feel, is going to have a black and Latinx problem pretty soon. I don’t see him really addressing issues important to us in a significant way.”