Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes Low… Again. Pete Buttigieg Replies With Dignity
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supports the Q-Anon conspiracy, is known for her often inflammatory comments. Snippets of Greene’s speeches at GOP events tend to go viral with many pundits believing engagement is the end goal.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was a recent target of Greene’s during a Trump rally and he decided to respond to her outlandish statements in an interview with Fox News, reports Free Speech TV.
GREENE’S COMMENTS WHIFF OF UNMASKED HOMOPHOBIA
Pete Buttigieg is among the first openly gay cabinet members in US history and is an advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights. As the Secretary For Transportation, Buttigieg has focussed on safety, jobs, equity, climate, and innovation, reports US Department of Transport.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a reactionary politician who has built a following espousing contentious perspectives such as claiming Barack Obama is secretly Muslim, alleging that Hillary Clinton assassinated JFK Jr, and positing that the California wildfires of 2018 were started by a prominent Jewish banking family, reports The New York Times.
Greene’s incendiary comments often give rise to her popularity among right-wing fringe groups, but alienate her from the mainstream GOP. This context sets the scene for her comments aimed at Buttigieg during a Michigan rally, reports Free Speech TV.
She said: “There’s nothing more American than the roar of a V8 engine under the hood of a Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro, an incredible feel of all that horsepower. But Democrats like Pete Buttigieg want to emasculate the way we drive and force all of you to rely on electric vehicles.”
The implication of this statement is hard to glean in its entirety, but the general tenor seems to be that driving an electric vehicle rather than the standard unleaded or diesel vehicle makes you less American and less masculine. Baffling as that is, the statement has a lingering homophobia about in the way it reads like Buttigieg has an agenda against masculinity.
Choosing to respond measuredly, Pete Buttigieg said, “I literally don’t even understand what that means. I mean, my sense of manhood is not connected to whether my vehicle is fuelled by gasoline or whether it’s fuelled by electricity.”
Buttigieg summarily finishes the point by saying, “It was a strange thing to say, but to be honest there are other members of Congress that I pay more attention to when I’m thinking about opinions that really matter or ideas that are going to be critical to engage with.”
