Pete Buttigieg: Outrage over anti-gay protestors dressed as 2020 candidate 'whipping Jesus on a cross'
![Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has said events named after US founding father Thomas Jefferson should be renamed because he was a slave owner.The 2020 candidate said changing the title of his party’s annual dinner events – designated in honour of presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson – was “the right thing to do”.Speaking on a nationally syndicated radio show, Mr Buttigieg was asked whether the Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinners be renamed across the US because both were holders of slaves.“Yeah, we’re doing that in Indiana. I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mr Buttigieg told The Hugh Hewitt Show, referring to his home state.“Over time, you develop and evolve on the things you choose to honour,” he said, before saying he thought Jefferson’s legacy was particularly “problematic”.One of the founders of the Democratic party, the third US president was a Virginia plantation owner and is believed to have owned more than 600 slaves during his lifetime. Yet Jefferson also condemned the practice as a “moral depravity”.“There’s a lot of course to admire in his thinking and his philosophy,” said Mr Buttigieg. “Then again if you plunge into his writings, especially the Notes on the State of Virginia, you know that he knew slavery was wrong – and yet he did it.”The South Bend mayor insisted the renaming of events was not about “blotting him out of the history books or deleting him from being [one of] the founding fathers”, but was a question of which things you decided to honour.“The real reason I think there is a lot of pressure on this is the relationship between the past and present that we’re finding in a million different ways that racism isn’t some curiosity out of the past that we’re embarrassed about but moved on from,” the Democrat added.“It’s alive, it’s well, it’s hurting people and it’s one of the main reasons to be in politics today is to try to change or reverse the harms that went along with that. We better look for ways to live out and honour that principle.”Democratic party organisers in several states, including Georgia, Connecticut and Missouri, have removed the names of Jefferson and Jackson from their annual fundraising dinners – informally known as “JJs” – in recent years.Jackson, the seventh US president, signed the Indian Removal Act which forcibly relocated Native Americans – a dispossession between 1830 and 1850 known as the Trail of Tears.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/9e9ek5QklQHPzb3kC_ewLg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_independent_635/e271b9416b71e34c988f3c53d4bb8bba)
![Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has said events named after US founding father Thomas Jefferson should be renamed because he was a slave owner.The 2020 candidate said changing the title of his party’s annual dinner events – designated in honour of presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson – was “the right thing to do”.Speaking on a nationally syndicated radio show, Mr Buttigieg was asked whether the Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinners be renamed across the US because both were holders of slaves.“Yeah, we’re doing that in Indiana. I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mr Buttigieg told The Hugh Hewitt Show, referring to his home state.“Over time, you develop and evolve on the things you choose to honour,” he said, before saying he thought Jefferson’s legacy was particularly “problematic”.One of the founders of the Democratic party, the third US president was a Virginia plantation owner and is believed to have owned more than 600 slaves during his lifetime. Yet Jefferson also condemned the practice as a “moral depravity”.“There’s a lot of course to admire in his thinking and his philosophy,” said Mr Buttigieg. “Then again if you plunge into his writings, especially the Notes on the State of Virginia, you know that he knew slavery was wrong – and yet he did it.”The South Bend mayor insisted the renaming of events was not about “blotting him out of the history books or deleting him from being [one of] the founding fathers”, but was a question of which things you decided to honour.“The real reason I think there is a lot of pressure on this is the relationship between the past and present that we’re finding in a million different ways that racism isn’t some curiosity out of the past that we’re embarrassed about but moved on from,” the Democrat added.“It’s alive, it’s well, it’s hurting people and it’s one of the main reasons to be in politics today is to try to change or reverse the harms that went along with that. We better look for ways to live out and honour that principle.”Democratic party organisers in several states, including Georgia, Connecticut and Missouri, have removed the names of Jefferson and Jackson from their annual fundraising dinners – informally known as “JJs” – in recent years.Jackson, the seventh US president, signed the Indian Removal Act which forcibly relocated Native Americans – a dispossession between 1830 and 1850 known as the Trail of Tears.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/tIa2Pt6CSvSgUcQKH6zNWQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_independent_635/082938522c24dcada1788b7f9f5dd6aa)
Pete Buttigieg has been confronted by anti-gay hecklers along the campaign trail this week, with demonstrations taking a bizarre turn at an Iowa rally.
A notorious anti-abortion activist dressed as the Indiana mayor began whipping a man wearing a costume of Jesus Christ near a Marshalltown campaign stop Wednesday morning, a day after that same protestor attempted to interrupt another event held by Mr Buttigieg.
That man, Randall Terry, can be seen in a video captured by freelance Getty Images video producer Marcus DiPaola donning a “Mayor Pete” sign around his neck as he whips the other demonstrator, who is holding a cross on his back.
A third protestor dressed as the devil can be heard shouting on a loudspeaker, “Yes, more blood, Peter!” and “Every vote is a lash on the back of Christ.”
Mr Buttigieg has remained notably calm throughout each of the heckling attempts, receiving attention for his thoughtful responses to the issue of his sexuality and how it plays into voters opinions of him. His audiences have also typically kicked in with support, drowning out the noise with chants and cheers.
When Mr Terry began shouting at the mayor's Des Moines rally Tuesday night, Mr Buttigieg responded, “The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God."
“But the Iowa caucuses are up to you,” he added, pointing to the crowd.
The mayor also harkened back to his own religious views during a separate heckling event at another Tuesday rally.
As a heckler shouted claims about Mr Buttigieg supporting “the murder of unborn babies,” the 2020 candidate joked that “coffee after church gets a little rowdy sometimes.”
“That gentleman believes that what he is doing is in line with the will of the creator,” Mr Buttigieg said, as the man was escorted out of the room by security. “I view it differently. We ought to be able to view it differently.”
Mr Terry is a controversial figure, described as an “attention seeker” who travels cross country to participate in spectacles like the Wednesday morning demonstration.
The anti-abortion group he previously founded, called Operation Rescue, reportedly cut all ties with him nearly 18 years ago and considers him too radical to have any sort of relationship.
