Pete Buttigieg Takes Controversial Stance on Bathing in Iowa

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeared to suggests college students save money by bathing in dish soap. Or maybe wash their dishes with bath soap.

Regardless, Des Moines Register reporter Brianne Pfannesteil captured a curious exchange during the out candidate's most recent campaign stop at the paper's Political Soapbox event during the Iowa State Fair.

Questioners asked Buttigieg for advice to today's college students, and rather than offer any kind of strategy for avoiding crippling college loans or pursuing a degree in a high-demand field, he veered toward the sanitary.

"Dish soap and soap are basically the same thing," he told a crowd.

And the event took place, as luck would have it, at an event named for soap.

Campaigning in the state that will host the first caucuses of the 2020 Democratic primary, he also offered some advice on cleaning up Washington.

That included a constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United decision, which expanded the influence of big money in politics. "Money is not the same thing as speech," he told the crowd, the Register reports.

The crowd did not appear to dwell on the advice on bringing kitchen cleaning lubricant into the bathroom.

But online, where Pfannesteil suggested the washing advice may be Mayor Pete's "most controversial take yet," Twitter users certainly explored the musing.

"About to learn that the guy who owns Dove is one of the 23 billionaires supporting him," @ASegals fretted on Twitter.

"Big Dial is going to try to take down Pete now," Joe DiGiacomo predicted in a separate take.