Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, mocked former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), for calling Trump a “person of character.”
During a recent campaign rally, Vance said, “The most important thing is not that we agree on 100% of the issues, it’s that we have a person of character and courage under fire in the Oval Office.”
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Secret Service agents reportedly had to “smuggle” Emhoff away from “hunks in bikini cut swimsuits” after the event ended.
In response, Chasten Buttigieg posted a video of Vance’s comment and added Trump’s infamous recorded statements that he made in September 2005 to Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush.
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At the time, Trump told Bush that he might try to kiss actress Arianne Zucker whom he and Bush were waiting to meet, saying, “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.”
Buttigieg posted a shortened version of the quote.
A tape of Trump’s infamous quote leaked to the press in October 2016, just two days before Trump’s presidential debate with Hillary Clinton. In response, numerous congressional Republicans withdrew their support of Trump’s candidacy and condemned his comments.
“Hitting on married women? Condoning assault? Such vile degradations demean our wives and daughters and corrupt America’s face to the world,” former Massachusetts Gov. and not-yet-Sen. Mitt Romney said.
Eventually, Trump himself responded to the backlash, saying that he would not drop out of the presidential race, stating, “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. [Former President] Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
While Trump went on to win the 2016 election, at least 26 women have publicly accused him of rape, sexual assault, or sexual misconduct. Though Trump has denied all of the allegations, in May 2023, he was found liable for sexual abuse against E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room around 1996. A jury ordered Trump to pay her $5 million for the assault, but he said he would appeal the decision.
This isn’t the first time that Buttigieg has mocked Vance for his comments on the campaign trail.
In September, Vance suggested that American families struggling with childcare costs should simply ask grandparents, aunts, and uncles to help raise their kids. In response, Buttigieg replied, “Ask grandma to watch them for free” is not policy.
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