Buttigieg Rips DeSantis’ Homophobic Ad: ‘Trying To Prove Your Manhood’ Next To ‘Oiled Up, Shirtless Bodybuilders’

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg ripped into Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ latest attack ad against Donald Trump, calling out the “strangeness” of DeSantis splicing images of himself “in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders” as he railed against the LGBTQ+ community in the ad.

Images of oiled-up bodybuilders featured in DeSantis’ latest attack ad.

The Republican presidential hopeful released a video on Friday attacking Trump for his prior statements in support of the LGBTQ community during his 2016 campaign. The ad then touts DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ policies while splicing together images of DeSantis alongside “manly” images that bizarrely include oiled-up bodybuilders, Brad Pitt in “Troy” (twice), Leonardo DiCaprio in “Wolf of Wall Street” and Christian Bale as psychopathic serial killer Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho.”

While appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Buttigieg was asked for his reaction to the ad.

“I’m gonna choose my words carefully, partly because I’m appearing as Secretary so I can’t talk about campaigns,” Buttigieg began. “And 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? Who are you trying to make better off and what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?”

Buttigieg, who ran for president in the 2020 race before being tapped as Transportation Secretary, pointed out the contrast between Biden and DeSantis’ campaign platforms, the latter of which has focused largely on attacking “woke” liberals and the LGBTQ community personally.

“These are the kinds of problems that most of us got into government politics and public service in order to work on, and 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.”

BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg talks about the homophobic, anti-LGBTQ Ron DeSantis campaign video:

“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… Who are you… pic.twitter.com/Terb7WlWXr

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 2, 2023

You can watch DeSantis’ attack ad below:

Ron DeSantis' campaign has quietly deleted its vile, homophobic campaign ad after receiving almost universal condemnations for it. pic.twitter.com/vaDjjRHVNZ

— TheGailyGrind 🏳️‍🌈 (@thegailygrind) July 7, 2023

It’s difficult to overstate the damage this ad is causing Ron DeSantis right now. His team is frantically working the phones as @GOP groups like LCR condemn DeSantis as a raging homophobe. What a massive, inexplicable misfire. https://t.co/89PFuw2gBh

— Max Burns (@themaxburns) July 1, 2023