Amid his sprawling tour of the late-night talk show scene, Democratic Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg stopped by The Stephen Colbert Show to once again lash out at Mike Pence, declaring that the VP “would be a nice guy to your face” but is “also just fanatical” in his beliefs.
Buttigieg didn’t stop there, however. He went on to mockingly remark that Pence “seems to think the universe was created a few thousand years ago and that people like me get up in the morning and decided to be gay.”
Mayor Pete, who is openly gay and married to a man, has struck out at Pence repeatedly over the VP’s conservative Christian views on sexuality. And he used the same lines again on Colbert.
“If it was a choice,” Buttigieg said of being same-sex attracted, “it was a choice made way above my pay grade.”
Trotting out the same phrasing, Buttigieg then insisted once again that Pence must discuss the issue of personal sexuality with God.
“What he doesn’t realize is that his quarrel is with my creator,” the major declared. The bizarre thing is that Pence has never once criticized nor harangued Buttigieg for his sexuality, or anything else for that matter.
After Buttigieg took some initial shots at the Vice President last month, Pence appeared to be utterly perplexed by the outburst. The Vice President told CNBC that Buttigieg “knows better” than to say “things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally, adding that the pair “had a great working relationship,” during their time in Indiana.
“He knows me,” Pence added, “but I get it. You know, it’s 19 people running for president on that side in a party that’s sliding off to the left. And they’re all competing with one another for how much more liberal they are.”
In an interview with Fox News Monday, Pence doubled down on his polite sentiments and refused to get involved in a back-and-forth with the Mayor.
“Pete Buttigieg and I had a good relationship when I was governor and he was serving as mayor in the state of Indiana,” the VP explained. “And, look, you know, I wish him well.”
Speaking more broadly about the left’s relentless attacks on those who hold true to the traditional tenets of Christianity, Pence noted that in previous generations it “didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible.”
“But things are different now,” he added, “some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs.”