Limbaugh’s Buttigieg remarks draw criticism
WASHINGTON — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has drawn bipartisan criticism for saying the country won’t elect Pete Buttigieg president because he’s been “kissing his husband” on stage after debates.
Limbaugh’s comments came a little more than a week after President Donald Trump awarded him the nation’s top civilian honor during the State of the Union address. Trump said Limbaugh inspires millions of people daily, and the president thanked him for “decades of tireless devotion to our country.”
Limbaugh, a staunch Trump ally who recently announced that he has advanced lung cancer, made the remarks on his nationally syndicated radio show. Buttigieg has finished in the top two in Democrats’ first two presidential contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“They’re saying, ‘OK, how’s this going to look?’” Limbaugh said Wednesday, imagining Democrats’ thinking. “Thirty-sevenyear-old gay guy kissing his husband on stage, next to Mr. Man, Donald Trump.’”
Buttigieg didn’t directly address Limbaugh’s remarks. But at a town hall in Las Vegas on Thursday night, he said, “I’m proud of my marriage; I’m proud of my husband.” Limbaugh’s remarks were the latest turn in a career in which he’s won an adoring audience among millions of conservative listeners but condemnation from others for comments considered racist, sexist and offensive.
Buttigieg, 38, is a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and has been married to his husband, Chasten, since 2018. Buttigieg was a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan, is a Harvard graduate and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University in England.
Limbaugh said he envisioned Democrats concluding that “despite all the great wokeness and despite all the great ground that’s been covered, that America’s still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is challenging Buttigieg for the Democratic presidential nomination, assailed Limbaugh on ABC’s “The View.”
“I mean, my God,” said Biden, who called it “part of the depravity of this administration.” He added, “Pete and I are competitors, but this guy has honor, he has courage, he is smart as hell.”
Trump, asked if Americans would vote for a gay man to be president, responded, “I think so.”
Still, Trump added: “I think there would be some that wouldn’t. I wouldn’t be among that group, to be honest with you.” Trump spoke during an interview with Geraldo Rivera on Cleveland’s Newsradio WTAM.
A Buttigieg campaign spokesman declined to comment.
But the candidate has addressed criticism over his sexuality before. During a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last year, an audience member asked what he should tell his friends who say America isn’t ready for a gay president. Buttigieg replied, “Tell your friends I said ‘hi.’”