‘Who are you trying to help?’: Buttigieg slams DeSantis over LGBTQ-focused ad

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a campaign video the GOP presidential hopeful released attacking former President Donald Trump for vowing to protect LGBTQ rights.

“I'm going to leave aside the 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?” Buttigieg said Sunday during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The video released Friday shows footage of Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” Trump’s remarks came in the wake of the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 50 dead.

“I 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,” said Buttigieg, who is gay and has spoken out frequently on LGBTQ issues.

DeSantis has championed several laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ people in Florida as governor, most notably an education bill referred to by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with some students. The bill spurred the GOP primary candidate’s controversial, months-long battle with Disney.

The video shared by the “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account angered some within the Republican party as well, including the Log Cabin Republicans, a group representing LGBT conservatives, who said the clip “ventured into homophobic territory.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misstated that Pete Buttigieg was the first openly gay Cabinet member.