Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. Transportation Secretary and former mayor of South Bend, has become one of the Democratic Party’s most relied upon messengers on cable news and late-night television. And on Tuesday night, he continued to show why.
“I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me from Fox News,” the 42-year-old, who has drawn attention for taking the Democratic Party’s message to the conservative network, joked at the beginning of his primetime speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The 2020 presidential primary candidate, who went on to join the Biden Administration and has emerged as one of the Democrats’ most valuable talking heads, was reportedly among the short list considered to be selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. But despite not being tapped for the role, Buttigieg has enthusiastically rallied support for the Democratic ticket and criticized their Republican opponents.
On Tuesday night, he also touched on his family life and how his experiences have helped shape his vision of what he called a “better politics.”
“I believe in a better politics—one that finds us at our most decent, and open, and brave—the kind of politics that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are offering,” Buttigieg said. “As you’ve felt in the last couple of days, that kind of politics just feels good to be a part of. There is joy in it, as well as power.”
Here are some of the biggest moments from Buttigieg’s DNC speech.
America’s not ‘in the market for darkness’
As he often does in interviews and media appearances, Buttigieg took aim at Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, claiming that Vance is “one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life he has in mind for you, then you don’t count.”
“Choosing a guy like J.D. Vance to be America’s next vice president sends a message,” Buttigieg said. “And the message is that they are doubling down on negativity and grievance, committing to a concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness.”
“The thing is,” he added, “I just don’t believe that America today is in the market for darkness.”
Buttigieg criticized Vance for his previous suggestion that political leaders who don’t have biological children—such as Buttigieg and Harris—“don’t really have a direct stake” in the country. (Harris became a stepmother when she married Doug Emhoff, who has two kids; and Buttigieg and his husband Chasten have adopted infant twins).
“You know, Senator, when I was deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids,” Buttigieg said. “Some of the men and women who went outside the wire with me did not have kids. But let me tell you, our commitment to the future of this country was nothing if not physical.”
“At least Mike Pence was polite,” he said of Trump’s former running mate and vice president.
‘The right kind of politics’
Buttigieg said that Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was the convention’s headline speaker later the same night, represent what American politics is supposed to be—invoking a sense of hope, promise, freedom, and trust.
He argued that good leaders are those “who are out there building bridges” and not those “who are out there banning books.” He added that “the right kind of politics” made it possible for him to have the political and military career—and family life—he’s had as a gay man.
“The makeup of our kitchen table—the existence of my family—is just one example of something that was literally impossible as recently as 25 years ago when an anxious teenager growing up in Indiana wondered if he would ever find belonging in the world,” he said.
But over time, that changed. “This kind of life went from impossible, to possible; from possible to real; from real to almost ordinary, in less than half a lifetime,” Buttigieg said. “But that didn’t just happen. It was brought about. Through idealism and courage. Through organizing and persuasion. And storytelling and, yes, through politics. The right kind of politics.”
“This November we get to choose,” Buttigieg said. “We get to choose our President, we get to choose our policies, but most of all, we can choose a better politics.”
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