The national media didn’t get the context of Rush Limbaugh’s remarks on Pete Buttigieg right, so Buttigieg himself could be forgiven for also not getting it right the first time he was asked about them.
I’m not sure that same goodwill should extend to him having blatantly, willfully mischaracterized what Limbaugh said multiple times over the last week, including Tuesday night on CNN.
“The idea of the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Donald Trump lecturing anybody on family values,” he said. “I mean, I’m sorry, but one thing about my marriage is it’s never involved me having to send hush money to a porn star after cheating on my spouse with him or her. So they want to debate family values? Let’s debate family values.”
Buttigieg then proudly shared that video clip on Twitter, stating again, “I’m happy to debate family values with Rush Limbaugh or Donald Trump.”
He has responded similarly in previous interviews on Fox and CNN.
The problem is that neither Limbaugh nor Trump ever said anything good or bad about Buttigieg’s “family values.” Rather, Limbaugh last week had actually questioned whether old-guard Democrats thought Buttigieg’s sexuality was an election liability. The context of which was Limbaugh pointing out the weaknesses of the other front-runners in the race for the Democratic nomination.
“So let’s say you’re the Democrat establishment, and you’re faced with some hard, cold truths,” Limbaugh said. “You got Bernie number one, Buttigieg number two, and Klobuchar with her Klobmentum number three. … So you’re faced with a dyed-in-the-wool socialist who’s not even a Democrat, a gay guy, 37-years-old, loves kissing his husband on debate stages — can you see Trump have fun with that? — and Amy Klobuchar.”
More from the transcript of that episode of Limbaugh’s show:
“They gotta be looking at that, and they’ve gotta be saying that despite all the great progress and despite all the great wokeness and despite all the great ground that’s been covered, America’s still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president. They have to be saying this, don’t they?”
The “they” here are Democratic Party officials, and Limbaugh is not wrong to suggest that they’ve probably weighed the risk of running the first openly gay nominee for president. Political parties exist for the express purpose of weighing such risks in electability.
And here’s the deeper electoral reality: There is a reason no one expects Buttigieg to win the nomination, let alone the general election, even though he is the current delegate leader. It is his inability to earn more than 2% support nationally among black Democrat voters. And we know why that is. If you think it’s because he fired a black police chief in South Bend, then you don’t get it.
From an Associated Press report on Tuesday: “Joan Welch, a 63-year-old African American minister and social worker in Las Vegas, said she can’t support Buttigieg because of his sexual orientation.” Welch told the AP, “I’m against homosexuality. I love everybody, but I’m against that lifestyle.”
Democrats recognize this as a widespread problem for them if they nominate Buttigieg. Without high turnout and 90%-plus support from black voters, Democrats cannot win — kiss Buttigieg’s husband and the election goodbye.
Neither Limbaugh nor Trump has had anything to say about Buttigieg’s “family values,” so there’s no reason for him to challenge them to a debate over it. But he might try it with the voters he would actually need to win the general election.
