During his time as vice president under Donald Trump, Mike Pence was known more for his discretion than his humor. And there may be some reasons for that, judging by the jokes he made on Saturday against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at a social gathering in Washington.
Jokes deemed both homophobic and sexist by the White House. One of his spokespersons also asked Mike Pence to apologize on Monday. In vain.
Mike Pence’s kind regards to his ‘old friend’
The event, reported by CNN, took place last Saturday at the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner. The evening is analogous to the Correspondents’ Dinner, held in the same city and perhaps better known internationally. In short, it is about bringing together the luminaries of journalism and the ruling class around tables. Political personalities then follow one another on stage and must make their audience laugh, with more or less success.
It is in this context – between two tackles on Joe Biden and even some unkind comments about Donald Trump – that Mike Pence attacked the former Democratic candidate for the primaries and his private life. He referenced the adoption of two babies in 2021 by Pete Buttigieg and her husband.
“When Pete had his two children, he took two months of maternity leave, while at the same time thousands of travelers were stuck in airports, air traffic was closed and planes almost hit them in mid-flight,” she presented. , again. launching: “I mean, Pete Buttigieg is the only person in all of human history to have a child and cause postpartum depression to the rest of us.”
Earlier, Mike Pence had introduced his target as an “old friend,” a nod to Pete Buttigieg’s previous tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, the state he was then governor of.
Pete Buttigieg’s husband reacts
These protrusions, naturally, did not please the family of the Secretary of Transportation. If the latter has remained silent so far, her husband, Chasten Buttigieg, broke his on Twitter:
“I have an honest question for you, Mike Pence, after that prank you tried over the weekend. If any of your grandchildren were born prematurely and put on a ventilator at two months, their little fingers would tighten around yours. with the beep of the control”. screens in the background, what would you have done?”
Passage of arms between Camp Pence and the White House
But it is above all the reaction of the White House that has attracted attention. The press release from Karine Jean-Pierre, his spokeswoman, was blunt: “The former vice president’s homophobic joke towards Secretary Buttigieg was insulting and inappropriate, especially since he used women’s postpartum depression as a good word. He should apologize to women and the LGBTQ community, who have a right to respect and dignity.”
Camp Pence’s response skyrocketed. His chief of staff, Marc Short, responded with another press release. He urged the White House to “save America this false contempt (in French in the text, editor’s note)”, assuring that it would be “wise to focus less on reassuring the police woke up and more on bank failures, plane crashes, train derailments, and the current crisis in the supply chain.”
The exchange between the presidency and Mike Pence should also be read on a more directly political level. We lend you the ambition to compete in the Republican primaries for the next presidential election.
Source: BFM TV
