Pete Buttigieg’s Gay Off With Rachel Maddow Was Iconic And You Need To Watch It

April 22, 2019
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Last week openly gay democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg sat down for a career-making (IMHO TYVM) interview with Rachel Maddow, and it's straight up iconique! This topic doesn't really fit in with Fleshbot Gay's mantra of being really horny and pretty gross, so I'm throwing in a disgusting GIF at the bottom so I don't get dragged. Sorry I'm smart now!

Buttigieg fielded questions about his sexuality so mind-blowingly well that even the men of Duck Dynasty will walk away from this interview thinking straight presidents are downright unAmerican. And guess what. They are. Buttigieg came out of the closet (at the age of thirty-three) before seeking reelection as the mayor of known liberal mecca South Bend, Indiana. Miraculously he won with 80% of the vote - which was a wider margin than even his first election as a closeted man. In addition to proving that gay does pay, Buttigieg talks about traditional American "prestige" like he's doing drugs with JFK on a yacht. Magic. The man's magic.

Basically I've rounded up some of the (drastically abbreviated) highlights from Pete Buttigieg's sure-to-be infamous gay off with Maddow below. You can also check out the full interview in the video above or in the full transcript, and as promised, a disgusting GIF at the bottom of the page as a reward for your patience. Buttigieg 2020 anyone?

Maddow:

I acknowledge it's a difficult question, not because it's bad that you didn't come out until you were 33, but I think it would have killed me to be closeted for that long... I just wonder if that was hurtful to you?

Buttigieg:

Yes.

Maddow:

Coming out is hard, but being in the closet is harder.

Buttigieg:

It was and it wasn't. First of all, it took me plenty of time to come out to myself. So, I did not the way you did or the way my husband did figure out at such an early age that – I probably should have. I mean, there are certain – plenty of indications by the time I was 15 or so that I could point, like, yes, this kid is gay. But I guess I just really needed to not be. You know, there's this war that breaks out I think inside a lot of people when they realize that they might be something they are afraid of. And it took me a very long time to resolve that.

Now here's where he segues into all-American gaydom like a pro:

I had two things in my life that really mattered to me professionally. One of them was being an officer in the military, in the reserve. And the other was being an elected official, in Indiana. Neither of which is exactly LGBT friendly. In fact, both of which I assumed were totally, totally incompatible with being out. Both of which were meaningful. One of the risks that I think people with meaningful jobs have – especially people in politics actually – is because your job is meaningful, a lot of the meaning in your life comes from your job, which is a real problem because part of what is needed I think to be good at your job in politics is to have something worth more to you than winning. You have to be ready to walk away from that job in order to deserve it.

Bitch did that. Buttigieg then reassures us that being gay does not equal a loss of votes, and he does so by trusting Americans to not be bigots:

You treat people – you trust people and at least in this case, they reciprocated that trust. You know, that was more than I got elected in the first place. And so, I guess it's one thing that gives me encouragement. I mean, don`t get me wrong, as you know, there's plenty of ugliness from all over the place.

But most people I think are either supportive or even enthusiastic about the idea of the first out person going this far. Or they find a way to let me know they don't care. And that's historic, too. I mean, one day the way this will work is if a mayor is trying to figure out how to come out, you go to the next rubber chicken dinner you're going to and your date's the same sex, that's that, right? People shrug, figure it out and get on with the evening.

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Yesterday, I announced I'm officially running for president of the United States. It’s not just about winning an election -- it’s about winning an era. If you can, please consider making a contribution today at the link in bio.

A post shared by Pete Buttigieg (@pete.buttigieg) on Apr 15, 2019 at 2:55pm PDT

Finally, Buttigieg really wowed me by classily dragging Trump's lack of discernment when wielding America's prestige in front of dubious political leaders:

Maddow:

What would your posture be towards those types of world leaders (Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin) that this president has embraced? Would you meet with people like that?

Buttigieg:

Look, I still believe strongly in American values. And anytime we as a countries have tried to do something that we thought was in our interests but went against our values, sooner or later, it caught up to us. So, I think the core of American foreign policy in the future as the next president is trying to re-establish U.S. credibility and do things like make clear what the standards will be for the commitment of U.S. troops in unilateral military action in the future – which, by the way, I hope is a much higher bar going forward...

But as any of that is being resolved, it has to begin with the idea of American interests and American values are inseparable... I think it's precisely because they're (China, Russia, Saudi Arabia) throwing their weight around that we need American values out there. But it has to be credible. And that means you have to have a U.S. leader who's willing to draw lines, who's willing to hold leaders accountable when they do murderous things and who is extremely selective with when you use the prestige and power of the presidency either through a meeting or through a favorable comment to elevate or lift up a leader of any other country.

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