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The Secretary of Transportation defended his family's very relatable choice of vehicle while appearing on CNN to discuss marriage equality.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a celebratory bill-signing event at the White House today. This afternoon, a who's who of the LGBTQ+ community, members of Congress, and other invited allies will gather on the South Lawn to watch the president sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.
In advance of the event, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on CNN This Morning and again proved why he is among the administration's best spokespersons who can articulate how relatably ordinary LGBTQ+ families are.
Co-host Kaitlan Collins asked Buttigieg to respond to a now-viral clip of Republican U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri crying as she decried the bill during a debate in the House of Representatives, calling it "misguided" and "dangerous."
"I'll tell you my priorities," said Hartzler, at times through a cracked, tearful voice. "Protect religious liberty. Protect people of faith. And protect Americans who believe in a true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my colleagues find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill."
Hartzler's gay nephew, Andrew Hartzler, is among the people who are invited to attend today's marriage equality festivities.
Buttigieg responded, "I just wonder if [Rep. Hartzler] could see the family life that Chasten wrote about so movingly in that piece on Medium again as the most important experience in my day."
\u201c"If you believe in family, if you believe in kindness, if you believe in love, then you ought to see what goes on in millions of families, including mine."\n\n@SecretaryPete reacts to Respect for Marriage Act passage, confirms he and @Chasten have reached their minivan era:\u201d— CNN This Morning (@CNN This Morning) 1670939184
"If you believe in family, if you believe in kindness, if you believe in love, then you ought to see what goes on in millions of families, including mine, where the love and the institutional support of marriage that binds me and Chasten together, including through hard times and tug-of-war over who's going to the dishes when we're both exhausted," Buttigieg began.
"And what to do when we run out of eggs or those puffs that you can put in the little cup that have a remarkable kind of bribery effect on getting the kids to settle down, to quiet down when they're in the stroller or the minivan," Buttigieg went on before Lemon interrupted him.
"Wait, wait," Lemon interjected. "You have a minivan?"
Buttigieg replied, "Oh yeah, and that's another example of how marriage changes you and how kids change you. I never thought I'd be a minivan person. Never!"
Lemon and fellow co-host Poppy Harlow chuckled.
"You get there, you get there," Harlow exclaimed.
"Kids do it to you," she added.
"The things we do for the love of our children," Buttigieg said.
Lemon, through laughter, explained that he and CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, have an inside joke that involves minivans.
"I'll be there one day," Lemon added.
