DES MOINES, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg took a subtle jab at Democratic presidential primary rival Joe Biden in an LGBT pride festival speech on Saturday.
“There’s not going back to normal. Don’t listen to anybody in either party who says we can just go back to what we were doing,” the gay South Bend, Ind., mayor said. “We in the LGBT community know that when we hear phrases like ‘make America great again,’ that that American past was never quite as great as advertised.”
Buttigieg often condemns President Trump’s slogan and his glamorization of the past, but the mayor’s decision to add criticism of Democrats drew contrast with the messaging of former Vice President Biden, the front-runner in the field.
“I’ve worked across the aisle to reach consensus, to help make government work in the past. I can do that again with your help,” Biden said in his Pennsylvania kick-off rally last month.
Buttigieg also talked about his experience coming out as gay while he was mayor seeking re-election and finding love after coming back from deployment in Afghanistan, and advocated for a federal Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation nationwide.
Buttigieg’s values-focused speech drew criticism from 18-year-old Jonathan Martin, who yelled at Buttigieg as the candidate left the stage: “I wanna hear policy!”
Martin, a supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and wearing two Sanders pins on his rainbow LGBT pride shirt, explained that he does not think that Buttigieg walks the walk on combating corporate interests.
“He still takes corporate money,” Martin told the Washington Examiner, adding that the mayor is still acceptable to establishment Democrats. Martin also noted that Buttigieg does not support tuition-free college or “Medicare for all,” a government-financed healthcare system that would eliminate private insurance.
Martin conceded that his view of Buttigieg is uncommon among his peers in the LGBT community. “Most young gay people that I know love him to death because he’s gay,” Martin said.
Buttigieg volunteer Joe Nydle, 34, countered Martin’s characterization of the millennial candidate. “How can a mayor be establishment?” Nydle said. “He doesn’t take PAC money, he doesn’t take fossil fuel money, he doesn’t take lobbyist money.”
Buttigieg has 6.8% support, good enough for 5th place among the large stable of people vying for the Democratic nomination, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
