Jon Stewart loved Pete Buttigieg’s stance on JD Vance so much he praised it as “perfect.”
Buttigieg criticized Vance’s now-infamous “childless cat ladies” comment, arguing that Vance believes not just that being a parent makes you more important to the country, but that “not being a parent makes you less.”
Buttigieg brought up a past statement from Vance, in which the Republican vice presidential candidate said that people without children have no “physical commitment to the future of this country.”
What Buttigieg said next took Stewart aback for a moment.
“When I was deployed to Afghanistan,” Buttigieg told Stewart, “I didn’t have kids back then, but I will tell you, especially when there was a rocket attack going on, my commitment to this country felt pretty physical.”
After a moment of pause, Stewart responded, “This is why people love seeing you go on those shows, because that framing is perfect.”
Stewart continued: “It points to that idea that, who are you to tell what’s in someone else’s heart about what they feel about the future, or what they feel about this country? And the sacrifices that you made, as you said, without having had children, were tremendous.”
Buttigieg also slammed the “policy ideas behind” Vance’s comments on childless Americans, calling out the Ohio senator’s argument that people with kids should get more votes in elections than those without kids.
“It’s shocking,” Stewart concluded, after discussing Vance.
Stewart also tried to pin down Buttigieg on whether the Harris campaign is vetting him as a potential running mate for the presumptive Democratic nominee. Though Buttigieg would not give a straight answer, his reaction to the line of questioning led Stewart to believe he is being considered for the position.
It was another high-profile media appearance for Buttigieg, who has emerged as one of the Democrats’ most effective surrogates on television. On Sunday, Buttigieg appeared on Fox News and tussled with anchor Shannon Bream, saying Trump had broken his promises and pushing back when Bream tried to note Trump’s economic accomplishments and bring up GOP concerns about crime.
“Crime is down under Joe Biden and crime was up under Donald Trump,” Buttigieg said. “Now, I don’t know how often that gets reported on this network. So if you’re watching this at home, do yourself a favor and look up the data.”
Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Harris to replace him, a number of Democrats have emerged as top contenders to be her running mate.
Buttigieg is one of them, along with Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the options have narrowed to just Shapiro, Walz, and Kelly. Other reports included Beshear in that list. Two top contenders, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, both took themselves out of contention.
Harris is expected to announce her running mate in the next week.
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