Former President Barack Obama (Adam Schultz / Biden for President) and Secretary for Transportation Pete Buttigieg (Gage Skidmore)
Former President Barack Obama joked that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg couldn’t win the 2020 election because he is “gay” and “short,” according a new book.
TheHill has published an exclusive excerpt from Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, the latest book from journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, who co-wrote 2017’s bestselling Shattered, about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign.
Lucky — which received a middling review from the Washington Post — documents the campaign of President Joe Biden, whom Allen and Parnes called the “process-of-elimination candidate” after he emerged from a crowd Democratic field and ultimately won the 2020 election.
Allen and Parnes write about a private, Oct. 2019 meeting between Obama and a number of Black corporate donors, including executives from American Express, Citigroup, and Merck.
The former president, who reportedly spent most of the meeting trying to convince the donors to get behind a potential Sen. Elizabeth Warren presidency, called Buttigieg a “rising talent” and said he liked him.
However, Allen and Parnes claim that Obama then listed a number of reasons why Buttigieg would not win the presidency. (Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic primary prior to Super Tuesday, throwing his support behind Biden.)
Allen and Parnes write that Obama was “on a roll” during the meeting, “using the tone of light ridicule he some-times pointed at himself— ‘big ears’ and ‘a funny name,’ he’d said so many times before.”
“He’s thirty- eight, but he looks thirty,” Obama allegedly said of Buttigieg, drawing laughter from the crowd. “He’s the mayor of a small town. He’s gay, and he’s short.”
Obama’s jokes came, according to the book, only months after Buttigieg had visited the former president “seeking counsel on how to maintain equanimity in the face of homophobia on the campaign trail.”
“Now, behind his back, Obama was riffing on him to some of the wealthiest Black men in America at a time when Buttigieg had been dubbed ‘Mayo Pete’ by critics who believed he couldn’t connect with African American voters,” Allen and Parnes write.
After leaving the 2020 race, Buttigieg became a key surrogate for the Biden campaign, including viral appearances on Fox News slapping down right-wing talking points.
Buttigieg was later nominated by Biden to be Secretary of Transportation, becoming the first openly gay person to be confirmed by the Senate to a presidential cabinet.
Reacting to his confirmation last month, Buttigieg said he could “feel the history swirling around us when [Vice President Kamala Harris] was swearing me in with my husband, Chasten, at my side.”
An interracial gay couple who run an award-winning farm in King George County, Virginia, say they were the targets of a hate-filled act after someone deliberately dumped medical waste on their property following last week’s state elections.
Kevin Graham, 44, and Dragan Kurbalija, 47, own Gardening Gays Farm, a 27-acre property along U.S. Route 301 where they sell flowers, eggs, seasonal produce, and pasture-raised meats, including lamb and chicken.
They also sell jams, sauces, teas, herbal remedies, local honey, handcrafted candles, and other artisan goods at their on-site store, and share their experiences as farmers on YouTube. The business was recently voted King George County’s “Overall Best Business,” “Best Family-Owned Business,” and “Best Agricultural Business” in a county-sponsored “Best of the Best” contest.
"Hold on just a second, I have to put the phone down for a sec. I'll be right back," says Paula Poundstone as our conversation begins. A minute later, she's back with an explanation.
"I'm about to feed my cat Larry," she says. "And I feed Larry by throwing one piece of food at a time across the room, but that requires getting all the other cats out of the room."
How many cats does Paula Poundstone own? "I have 11," she replies. When I joke that she's playing into stereotypes, the 65-year-old comic breaks into a hearty laugh.
"I think I probably am, but you know what? Cat people are good people, I think. The fact that JD Vance hates us is so empowering. And my cats can't talk, but trust me, they don't like JD Vance."
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.