Former Democratic presidential candidate and two-term South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg has been a valuable surrogate for the Biden-Harris campaign this election cycle.
He helped Kamala Harris prepare for the debates by playing Mike Pence in rehearsals. He’s appeared on Fox News multiple times to represent the Biden-Harris campaign, and crisscrossed the country speaking on behalf of the ticket.
He’s also made a lot of headlines for his snappy comebacks on his Fox News appearances.
Wednesday night, he appeared at an event in Saint Petersburg, Florida in an attempt to mobilize LGBT support for the campaign in the pivotal state. Buttigieg came out in 2015 and married his husband, Chasten, in 2018.
During his speech, a heckler wearing cargo shorts and two red hats, one that reads: Keep America Great 2020, was shouting in front of the podium and holding his camera up to live stream. Nothing says “I love Trump” like two red hats. Dude went double-MAGA.
The man goes by the name Jonathan Lee Riches on Twitter where his bio reads: “I spent 10 years in Federal Prison for a non violent white collar crime. Now I love to Sue & Expose Bad People.” But he loves Trump.
He obviously also likes to be rude, too.
While Buttigieg spoke, Riches shouted, “Trump 2020. Say no to Sleepy Joe Biden!”
After repeated interruptions, Buttigieg used Riches to highlight Trump’s lack of support for the LGBT community. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a president who will serve him just as enthusiastically as he will serve us?” Buttigieg asked as security separated him from the heckler.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a president who cares just as much about protecting the lives of those that protest us as those who stand at our side?” Buttigieg continued.
“Don’t you feel a little sorry for a president who finds it necessary to draw this kind of support?” Buttigieg said. “But it’s ok sir because when Joe Biden is president you will be safer, too!”
After the man attempted to interrupt him again, Buttigieg addresses him saying: “But dude, can I finish my remarks? Are you afraid to hear what I have to say?”
He then asked the man: “Do you denounce white supremacy?” and after the heckler nodded his head in agreement, Buttigieg happily exclaimed: “Good, then we agree on something. That’s a beginning point.”
“See if you can get your president to do the same thing!” he said.
Buttigieg’s handling of the protester was masterful because instead of shouting down the man, he took the high road and found something that they could agree upon. Interestingly, it was against Trump.
Trump had a really hard time condemning the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group, during the first Trump-Biden debate in September.
This isn’t the first time Buttigieg handled a heckler with grace. At a rally in Des Moines, Iowa in April 2019, while he was running for president, Buttigieg encountered an anti-gay heckler shouting at him at a rally.
“Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, Pete! Remember Sodom and Gomorrah,” the heckler yelled, referencing the Biblical story used by Abrahamic religions to condemn homosexuality.
The crowd chanted to drown out the man’s hysterics, chanting, “Pete! Pete! Pete!” After the man was removed from the rally, Buttigieg responded to the man’s bigotry calmly saying, “The good news is the condition of my soul is in the hands of god, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you.”
Buttigieg would go on to win the Iowa caucuses.
