Secretary Buttigieg calls out Sen. Rubio for calling same-sex marriage bill a ‘waste of time’

The Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Sunday criticized Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his recent comments on a bill that looks to protect same-sex marriage.

CNN’s Manu Raju said on Twitter last week than Rubio “told me that he is a NO on House’s same-sex marriage bill, calling it a ‘stupid waste of time.’” His description of the bill caused much controversy among Twitter users.

Buttigieg responded, telling CNN host Jake Tapper: “If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to safeguard marriages like mine.”

The comment from Rubio comes right after the House advanced the “Respect for Marriage Act” last Tuesday, which essentially codifies the rights for same-sex and interracial couples, according to The Hill. The bill was first introduced by the Democrats as a counter to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion after overturning Roe v. Wade.

The opinion in question referred for the Supreme Court to revisit other rights which includes contraceptives and same-sex marriage. It didn’t take long for Pete Buttigieg, the first openly LGBTQ+ secretary to provide his perspective on the matter. 

“I don’t understand, because such a majority of House Republicans voted no on our marriage on as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was in a room with a lot of them talking about transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations with many of them on that subject, only for them to go around the corner and say that my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue.”

Rubio was quick to respond to Buttigieg on Sunday via a video he posted on Twitter, suggesting that the Secretary of Transportation doesn’t know the difference between federal and state-level fights. Rubio in his Twitter video said,

“I’m gonna focus on the real problems. I’m not gonna focus on the agenda dictated by a bunch of affluent elite liberals, and a bunch of Marxist misfits who sadly today control the agenda of the modern Democratic party.”