Buttigieg excoriates DeSantis for ‘competing’ with Trump to ‘make life harder’ for LGBTQ community

Pete Buttigieg accused Ron DeSantis of “competing” with Donald Trump over who can hurt the LGBTQ community more, while burning his campaign video marking the end of Pride Month.

The Secretary of Transportation slammed the Florida governor for trying to “prove his manhood” with a video comparing him to a “oiled up bodybuilder” and Leonardo DiCaprio portraying the infamous Jordan Belfort in Wolf of Wall Street.

“I don’t understand the mindset of someone who gets up in the morning and thinks he’s going to prove his worth by competing for who can make life the hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America,” Buttigieg said. in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning.

Buttigieg, who ran for the Democratic primary in 2020 before being hired in the Biden administration, is gay and has been married to his husband Chasten since 2018. The couple adopted twins in August 2021.

DeSantis’ campaign was accused of homophobia after tweeting a video highlighting Trump’s support for the LGBTQ community, contrasted with a montage of the governor’s policies that critics have labeled anti-gay.

The clip shows Trump pledging to protect LGBTQ citizens, saying Caitlyn Jenner can use any bathroom she chooses in Trump Tower, and welcoming trans contestants to Miss Universe. After footage of Trump, the video cuts into a montage of DeSantis striding “manly” across the screen, set to a booming, bass-heavy soundtrack.

Headlines flash across the screen describing how DeSantis signed the “most extreme list of anti-trans laws in modern history” and banned school drag shows.

“You know, I’ll choose my words carefully, partly because I’m acting as secretary, so I can’t talk about campaigns,” Buttigieg told CNN host Dana Bash in response to the video.

“I’m going to disregard the weirdness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splits footage of you between oiled up, shirtless bodybuilders — and just getting to the bigger issue I think of when I see these things in the policy space,” he added. “What is, again, who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning to think about how to solve them?”

Biden’s Secretary of Transportation insisted, “We as an administration are focused on how to get things done and make people better off.”

DeSantis’ new campaign video aired on the same day that both he and Trump were in Philadelphia for a Moms for Liberty rally — where a Trump supporter described his 44-year-old rival as a “knock-off” of Trump.

Clips in the video feature a smiling DeSantis interspersed with images of Christian Bale as a serial killer in American Psycho, references to The Wolf of Wall Street, and images of Brad Pitt in the movie Troy.

The video comes as DeSantis’ polls remain stubbornly low, with Trump significantly ahead among the primary voters.

A YouGov poll for The Economist conducted June 24-27 gave Trump a 27-point lead over the Florida governor.

Trump sat at 52 percent and DeSantis at 25 percent.

On Friday, Trump and DeSantis were both in Philadelphia trying to outflank each other on the right.

Trump told the crowd at the Moms for Liberty group that he would “eliminate all diversity, justice and inclusion programs across the entire federal government.”

DeSantis vowed to enforce his Florida policy on LGBTQ discussions in schools and restrooms at the federal level.

“What we’ve seen in this country in recent years has awakened the most powerful political force in this country: mama bears,” he said to the crowd of hundreds.

“We’ve done so much on these issues in Florida, and I will do all of this as the next president.”

But his message still didn’t catch on.

Contestant Alexis Spiegelman of Sarasota, Florida, told the New York Times that she felt DeSantis was just a fake of the former Apprentice host.

“I just don’t know why we would want a knockoff when we have the real, authentic Trump,” she said.

Alexis Spiegelman, who directs the Moms for Liberty chapter in Sarasota, Florida, told me The New York Times“I just don’t see why we would want a knockoff when we have the real, authentic Trump.”

DeSantis’ strategy of positioning himself to Trump’s right has also been questioned by Republican strategists.

“The consultants who think this kind of ‘running to Trump’s right’ will be effective should be fired,” said Sarah Longwell, CEO of conservative firm Longwell Partners.

Andrew Clark, a Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, said DeSantis promoting himself as rolling back LGBTQ rights was a bad electoral approach.

“Many problems with this video,” he tweeted.

“Especially Trump’s opening line saying, ‘I will do everything I can to protect our LGBTQ citizens’ like that’s a huge hit?”

Is DeSantis Against Protecting LGBTQ Citizens?

“I get the message they were going for, but damn, this isn’t it.”

Chadwick Moore, a contributing editor of The Spectator, said: ‘This ad is a wholly unnecessary, thoroughly ill-conceived slap in the face to many people. Really stupid who approved this. Extremely stupid.’

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said, “So Desantis thinks this is going to work? Highly doubt it.

“Outrage after outrage is the only way these guys know how to campaign.”

Greg Kelly, the flaming Newsmax host, said DeSantis was wrong to include Caitlyn Jenner in his campaign, defending her as a true Republican and someone to be respected.

‘WOW! Ron DeSantis Desperately Attacks CAITLYN JENNER – What’s Ron’s Problem?’ Kelly tweeted.

CAITLYN JENNER is strongly AGAINST secularizing children, is FOR protecting biological WOMEN in sports. ‘Ron’ is WRONG about MAGA when he thinks BUSTING on Caitlyn is cool. Sorry RON!’

And Ric Grenell, the first openly gay person to serve in a presidential cabinet, who briefly served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, said, “This is undeniably homophobic.”