2020 Democrat candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana appeared for the third time on The View, Thursday, since announcing his run for president. While he was mostly treated to softball questions from the left, he was also surprisingly pressed to explain how he was going to win over Democrat and swing voters who didn’t believe in same-sex marriage and abortion.
Early in the interview, co-host Sunny Hostin played a viral clip of a Democrat woman at the Iowa Caucus saying she wanted to take back her vote, after finding out Buttigieg was in a same-sex marriage. While dismissing this view as a minority position, Hostin asked, “What do you say to voters who feel the way she does?” But Joy Behar’s followup question was more disrespectful, calling people against same-sex marriage, religious bigots:
“How are you going to overcome religious bigotry?” she asked, adding this disclaimer: “but maybe they don’t see it that way?”
Later, co-host Meghan McCain more forcefully pressed the mayor on his shocking comments seeming to justify infanticide.
The co-host first complimented Buttigieg as a “talented” rising star before getting him to defend his “pretty radical” abortion views made during a radio interview, last September:
I actually think you understand the middle of the country,because of where you're from. So I was really surprised--I saw an interview you did on a radio show where you were talking about abortion, I think this got a lot of play in conservative media, conservative circles where you were talking about -- and this is quote -- “There's a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath. So even that is something we can interpret that differently.”
It obviously, In my circles was passed around because I think the interpretation from pro-life people like me was that you meant a baby actually being born and then possible--you know there's a of controversy with Governor Northam and what it means and what time a woman should be able to have an abortion. I just wanted you to clarify because I found that statement to be pretty radical.
As with the first question, Buttigieg said people can “interpret scripture differently” on abortion. As he went on to claim government couldn’t tell a woman what to do, McCain referenced Northam again, demanding Buttigieg draw a line in the sand about where abortion was morally unacceptable.
“Pro life people and Democrats want to know where your line is,” she asked. Buttigieg again claimed that was entirely up to the woman, which prompted McCain to ask, “What if a woman wanted to I don’t know, invoke infanticide after a baby was born, you would be comfortable with that?”
“Does anybody seriously think that’s what these cases are about?” Buttigieg scoffed.
Trying to distract from his radical views, he continued by crafting a misleading, hypothetical scenario that suggested most late-term abortions are due to medical problems involving the health of the mother or the baby miscarrying, when in actuality it is more dangerous for women to have a late-term abortion than delivering the baby.
Regardless, the audience loudly cheered at Buttigieg’s dodge. McCain again softened her criticism by saying she “respected” him for not “backing down” from his position but warned him this was a radical take that would be a turn off for anti-Trump Republicans like herself:
"This is going to hurt you in the middle of the country with the block you're trying to win over. People like me, this is a hard line. Quite frankly, that answer is just pretty rad-- you’re, it’s just as radical as I thought it was. Sorry," she stated bluntly.
The hosts quickly cut to commercial after this exchange.
