Vice President Mike Pence is accusing Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg of infringing on his First Amendment right of freedom of religion.
In an interview with CNN, the Vice President was asked about the South Bend, Indiana mayor saying that if Pence disagrees that people are born gay he has a “quarrel” with Buttigieg’s “creator,” and not with Buttigieg.
Vice President Pence for days now has been attacking “Mayor Pete,” wrongly claiming Buttigieg is attacking him and his Christian faith, which Buttigieg has not done.
On Thursday, in a just-aired interview, Pence doubled down and expanded his attack.
“I hope that Pete will offer more to the American people than attacks on my Christian faith, or attacks on the president, as he seeks the highest office in the land,” Pence, playing the victim, told CNN’s Dana Bash.
“He argues,” Bash responded, “that your quarrel is with him as a gay man, and he says, ‘I was born this way, and this is the way God made me.’ That’s just not your belief?”
Pence would not answer the question directly.
“Well, I think Pete’s quarrel’s with [the] First Amendment,” Pence declared. “All of us in this country have the right to our religious beliefs,” he insisted, falsely suggesting that Buttigieg was somehow prohibiting him from holding his beliefs.
But the Vice President did not honor Buttigieg’s First Amendment rights – of religion or of free speech. He literally is attacking the Indiana mayor’s right to believe what his faith tells him, and to declare it out loud.
Watch (the CNN video appears to have some glitches):
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