South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said if he were elected he would probably not be the first gay president.
In an interview with “Axios on HBO,” the Democratic candidate said that “we’ve probably had excellent presidents who were gay—we just didn’t know which ones.”
The comment came in response to a question about the potential for his sexuality to be attacked by opponents.
“People will elect the person who will make the best president,” the mayor said. “And we have had excellent presidents who have been young. We have had excellent presidents who have been liberal,” noting some were probably gay, too.
Host Mike Allen then asked if he believed “we've had a gay commander-in-chief.”
“I mean, statistically it's almost certain,” Buttigieg responded, but he declined to speculate on which president may have been a homosexual.
“My gaydar doesn't even work that well in the present, let alone retroactively,” he said.
Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg: "I would imagine we've probably had excellent presidents who were gay, we just didn't know which ones"
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 16, 2019
When asked which presidents he thinks were gay, he responds: "My gaydar doesn't even work that well"pic.twitter.com/34y8edyIO4
While Buttigieg declined to go further, others did:
.@PeteButtigieg says America has had a gay president before. It was this guy. https://t.co/abimbEKYyI #PrideMonth
— David Beard (@dabeard) June 16, 2019
Join the conversation as a VIP Member