WASHINGTON \u2013 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg condemned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday over a campaign video that criticizes former President Donald Trump for his past support for LGBTQ Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning, thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America,\u201d Buttigieg said during an appearance on CNN\u2019s State of the Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video, released on the DeSantis War Room Twitter account on Friday, the last day of June\u2019s LGBTQ Pride Month, has been criticized by gay-rights groups and even some Republicans as bordering on homophobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
It shows footage of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention saying he would do everything in his power to protect LGBTQ citizens. He had been pledging protection from terrorist attacks weeks after the shootings at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video also highlights \u201cLGBTQ for Trump\u201d T-shirts sold by the former president\u2019s campaign and his past comments saying he would be comfortable with Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, using any bathroom at Trump Tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shifting gears, the video also shows images of DeSantis, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president, accompanied by dark, thumping music and promotes headlines about legislation he signed into law restricting transgender rights. The images are spliced together with footage of muscular, shirtless men and several Hollywood actors, including Brad Pitt, seen wearing a leather mask from the movie \u201cTroy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked by CNN to respond to the video, Buttigieg, who is gay, said he was going to leave aside \u201cthe strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders and just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More:’Extreme’ and ‘hateful’ bills: Biden moves to protect LGBTQ Americans amid onslaught of attacks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival of Trump and DeSantis in the 2024 GOP primary, also slammed the video as part of a teenage \u201cfood fight\u201d between the two Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt certainly doesn\u2019t make me feel inspired, as an American, on the Fourth of July weekend to have this type of back and forth going on,\u201d Christie said on CNN. \u201cIt is wrong to be doing it. And it\u2019s narrowing our country and making us smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Texas Congressman Will Hurd, who entered the race for the GOP presidential nomination in June, criticized the video and said candidates should concentrate on other issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wish they would focus their attacks on war criminals like Vladimir Putin, not my friends in the LGBTQ community,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cIt is 2023. We should be talking about how do we embrace our differences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Log Cabin Republicans, in a statement issued Friday, called the video \u201cdivisive and desperate\u201d and said that DeSantis\u2019 \u201cnaive policy positions are dangerous and politically stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n