Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked Pete Buttigieg Tuesday, saying the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s remarks that Vice President Mike Pence is a homophobe are “slanderous.” He also lied about President Donald Trump and the administration’s policies toward LGBTQ people, in the U.S. and around the world.
“I’ve known Mike Pence, Vice President Pence, for an awfully long time now,” Secretary Pompeo told right wing pundit Hugh Hewitt on his radio show.
Pompeo called Vice President Pence “a fundamentally decent man,” and said the VP “shares the administration’s view with respect to how every human being should be treated.”
“To say anything different from that is both false and frankly slanderous,” Pompeo told Hewitt.
For the record, Buttigieg told Hewitt Pence “advances homophobic policies. I don’t know what’s in his heart.”
The Secretary of State’s defense of the Vice President came in response to Hewitt’s question about U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell‘s supposed campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world, which when he was asked President Trump said he knew nothing about.
Pompeo also claimed that decriminalizing sexual orientation around the world has “been President Trump’s priority since the beginning of his administration.”
That’s just flat-out false and a lie. Not once has the President ever said that, or anything close to that. And his policies against LGBTQ people make it even more evident it’s false.
“I was asked about this during my confirmation hearing,” Pompeo continued, “and we made very clear every human being all around the world needs to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, just because of their God-given rights as a human being. We are staunchly working to protect those rights everywhere we act.”
Again, that’s false.
And in fact, during his confirmation hearing Pompeo said he opposes same-sex marriage and refused to say if he believes gay sex is “perversion.”
As far as “staunchly working to protect those rights,” that too is false.
Last month, in response to Brunei’s new law (since placed on hold) punishing homosexuality with the death penalty, instead of issuing a strong condemnation all Pompeo’s State Dept. could offer was a milquetoast statement of “concern.”
Pompeo is a far right Christian evangelical who in 2015 described politics as “a never-ending struggle … until the rapture.”
It is through that frame his comments to Hewitt should be viewed.
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Image by U.S. Department of State via Flickr