Not content to allow Mayor Pete Buttigieg to win over a Fox News townhall crowd, the network has slammed the South Bend, IN mayor as a “clown.”
Buttigieg won big at a Fox News townhall meeting over the weekend, earning applause and cheers from the crowd for his candid remarks about abortion and immigration. He also called out Fox News personalities Laura Ingram and Tucker Carlson for their own anti-immigration remarks.
That didn’t sit well with the hosts of Fox & Friends, who attacked Buttigieg, claiming the out-gay Democratic Presidential candidate supported exsponging Thomas Jefferson’s name from history because the founding father owned slaves. The hosts then showed edited video of Buttigieg talking about the ethical dilemma of honoring men who played a vital role in the inception of American democracy, but who also owned slaves.
Related: Pete Buttigieg kills it at Fox News town hall… by trashing its hosts and slamming Trump
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Buttigieg had given his full remarks to radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Yeah, we’re doing that in Indiana. I think it’s the right thing to do. Over time, you develop and evolve on the things you choose to honor … Jefferson is more problematic. There’s a lot, of course, to admire in his thinking and his philosophy, but then again if you plunge into his writings, especially the notes on the state of Virginia, you know that he knew slavery was wrong, and yet he did it. Now we’re are all morally conflicted human beings. It’s not like we’re blotting him out of the history books or deleting him from being [in] the Founding Fathers, but naming something after somebody confers a certain amount of honor. The real reason I think there is a lot of pressure on this is the relationship between the past and the present. We’re finding in a million different ways that racism isn’t some curiosity out of the past that we’re embarrassed about but moved on from. It’s alive and well and hurting people…”
The Fox & Friends hosts, however, mischaracterized what Buttigieg said. Host Brian Kilmeade called Buttigieg “a clown,” claiming the 2020 hopeful wanted to “erase Thomas Jefferson” from history books–the opposite of what Buttigieg had actually said.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has shot to national prominence in a meteoric rise since announcing he would seek the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination. In a field of more than 20 candidates, the 37-year-old routinely places third or fourth in polls behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.
man5996853
How does one “exsponge” something? Will his name be blotted out of history books? That might take a while.
PrinceofPrussia
Oh, who cares? Fox is irrelevant. No one takes them seriously anymore except ultra-conservative pseudo-christians (lower-case “c” intentional) filled with hate for others and debilitating self-loathing.
Chrisk
Oh yes faux news troll. Lets take an obvious biased Rethug mouthpiece over the advice of our intelligence community.
MacAdvisor
There isn’t any mystery to who started the “fake” Russia investigation: the Trump Administration. A Republican Assistant AG, working for a Republican AG, appointed a Republican Special Counsel to investigate the allegations.
dwes09
“It’s irrelevant to you because they don’t share your opinions and beliefs.”
Actually, it is irrelevant to thinking individuals because it has been called out many times for reporting false information, using doctored or unrelated images, and creating graphs that plot statistics incorrectly.
It has nothing to do with “opinions and beliefs”, except for the inability of both the network and its viewers to understand the difference between opinions and beliefs, and facts and statistics.
As for their “invesrtigation”, they also trumpeted the costly and pointless investigations of Hillary Clinton that amounted to nothing.
Sad to see supposed adults like you so easily swayed by lies and fairy tales.
Ukin Blome
Rupert Murdoch is the prince of darkness on Earth. He is setting to bring the end of times. Fox News is the tool of his demons.
IWantAFullBeard
Can he take his shirt off?
hayesj
Fix News is a cancer. Just like all their anchors. Cut the cancer out.
fur_hunter
And isn’t it interesting that the RepubliKKKans can talk about the Founding Fathers…and yet….forget one of their MOST IMPORTANT ideal they established……….SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. All these religious fundamentalist RepubliKKKans seem to forget that when it comes to equality in the country, don’t they? HYPOCRITES!!!!!!
dwes09
Many of the Evangelicans believe (and state regularly) that the separation of church and state has to do with the US government not endorsing *specific Christian sects*, and has nothing at all to do with any other faith.
They believe (with no evidence at all) that this was supposed to be a “Christian Country founded on Biblical principals”.
This is the driving force behind the Dominionists (Ted Cruz’ father is a major figure in that movement), who think God wants only fundamentalists in office and the Judicial, and the establishment of the US as the “new Israel”. These are some sick puppies, and they have their claws in the GOP.
GourmetGuy
fur_hunter, you got that rather complicated point EXACTLY right–and in so few words! I hope you write often here, there, and everywhere.
GourmetGuy
I think Pete Buttigieg is a prince and a true hero. I will vote for him enthusiastically, and so will everyone I call a friend. And that’s a lot of people, fortunately!
dwes09
I may well vote for him in the primary. But thereafter will vote for whoever gets the Democratic party nomination. We must all assure that Trump suffers a clear and undeniable defeat. Otherwise he will possibly not concede, need to be ejected by Federal Marshals and embarrass the entire country: making us more of a laughingstock than he already has.
GourmetGuy
I don’t remember ever being more enthralled by a Presidential candidate, and I’ve been voting in Presidential elections since Jimmy Carter was elected. It’s important to remember that in March of that year (1977), most Americans had never really heard of Carter, and by November, he was elected President. That’s one of the wonderful things about our Democracy. Now the time has come to fight tooth-and-nail against those who would manipulate Democracy to conform with their own means and ends. We must push Trump out of the White House and into the nearest sewer from whence he came.
Doug
This is really sad. I actually made myself turn on Fox News last night to watch the Buttigieg Town Hall and was amazed at how receptive the audience was… he got a round of applause after just about every question he answered. Buttigieg also made it clear he wanted to go on Fox to answer questions from conservatives, despite other candidates’ refusals. The next morning, of course, Fox has to try and find some way to diss him because God forbid they ever endorse an actual Democratic candidate. This is much ado about nothing.
truthseeker
Mayor Pete is just saying stuff like that to pander for the black vote. Of the Democratic nominees, he’s at almost 0% support from the black community. That’s why he’s selling merchandise with the brown Pride flag.
Debating the history of Jefferson and whether or not we should rename a dinner should not be a key issue in 2020. Why is this even an issue?
Chrisk
Yeah, was thinking that myself. The black community is just way too homophobic though and talking about Jefferson not being perfect by owning slaves or whatever is not going to change that 1%.
Saps48
Editor: It’s “expunging” not “exsponging.” Good grief.
Heywood Jablowme
If you put an exsponge in the microwave it becomes a sponge again. Something the Founders couldn’t have guessed.
jcoberkrom
The fact of the matter is that the “founding fathers” Founded this country for white middle and upper class males.
We need to acknowledge their short comings and move on.
youarederanged
Isn’t it funny how we are in a time in history where we reduce every individual to their worst qualities? Was Jefferson flawed? Absolutely. But he was also a genius, a father, a brilliant statesman, a husband, a farmer, and more. He did wrong, but he also did a lot of good. Why do we not talk about historical figures in a more well-rounded way? They are human, that means they are both good and bad. We should stop holding historical figures to a perfect standard. It’s unrealistic and dangerous.
Felecia
So Jefferson owned slaves, so what….as did George Washington, I might add…but nobody is screaming to take HIS face off of either Mt. Rushmore or American currency. While unfortunate for TJ’s historical legacy, it was legal at the time even though extremely distasteful to us here in 2019. Yet it is what it is, and the man did what damn near every other rich white man was doing during that era; acceptable ‘business as usual’ in the colonial United States. To those people, the abolitionists were the criminals…and in the eyes of the law, they were. But time marches on…perspectives change, and new laws blot-out the bad old ones. Do we REALLY need to demonize the lives of American historical figures simply to make OURSELVES feel better about what was happening back then…??? Because I can tell you without hesitancy; it won’t bother Jefferson one bit, lol….so what would be the point, I ask..?
Aires the Ram
@youarederanged: You are absolutely right. This country was founded to get away from European tyranny. This country was founded and fought for by people who wanted a better life for themselves and for future generations, as compared to what they came from. These very wise men, who wrote and signed the Constitution of the United States of America, gave ALL of us, to this very day in 2019, the best country in the world. Have there been mistakes made along the way? Of course. Have many of them been corrected over time? Of course. Before you bitch about our Founding Fathers and our Constitution, read a history book or two, and open up your eyes and look around you. To constantly wallow in “victimhood” is a fools game. You don’t see thousands upon thousands of Americans flocking off our shores to go to socialist and communist countries, now do you? It’s quite the opposite. And if you educated your self with some history, and some self reflection, you’ll understand why.
Felecia
As a Native American, I’d like to support Mayor Pete in his (alleged) desire to expunge the Founding Fathers; no history of those guys means WE get our land back and get to charge EVERYBODY rent, lol…and The Donald gets evicted…ooh, just thinking of it gives me goosebumps, lol…go Pete !!!