Marco Rubio Hits Back at Pete Buttigieg: I ‘Focus on the Real Problems’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks at the Heritage Foundation March 29, 2022 in Washington, DC
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) hit back at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for criticizing his reported decision to vote “No” on legislation that would codify same-sex marriage.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, Buttigieg was asked to comment on Rubio reportedly calling same-sex marriage legislation a “stupid waste of time” as Americans face so many struggles.

“If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to safeguard marriages like mine. This is really important to a lot of people. It’s important to me,” said Buttigieg.

“Our marriage deserves to be treated equally. I don’t know why this would be so hard for a senator or a congressman,” he continued. “I don’t understand how such a majority of the House Republicans voted no on our marriage as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was in a room with a lot of them, talking transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations — just for them to go around the corner and say my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue. If they don’t want to spend time on this, they can vote yes and move on. That would be really reassuring for a lot of families in America, including mine.”

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, with Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, in Washington, Monday, March 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, in Washington, Monday, March 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Rubio later responded with a video posted on Twitter, defending Florida’s recent fight against Disney while vowing to fight for “real problems” currently facing Americans, such as high gas prices.

“We have a Harvard-educated Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who apparently never learned that there is a difference between the state level and the federal level,” said Rubio. “The Disney fight was a state fight because our legislature rightfully passed a law that said that we don’t want our public schools indoctrinating six and seven-year-olds in the transgender agenda, and I supported that law. But what I focus on at the federal level, in the Senate, are federal problems that matter to real people. Real problems.”

Rubio further scolded Buttigieg for calling highways racist and for boasting that high gas prices could force Americans to either stop driving or purchase electric vehicles.

“I’ll give you a real problem. We have a Transportation Secretary named Pete Buttigieg who believes that highways can be racist, who believes that $5 gas — which is killing working Americans — that $5 gas is a great thing because that means people are going to drive less or because everyone is going to go out and buy a $65,000 electric car with a Chinese battery in it. I’m going to focus on the real problems,” said Rubio.

“I’m not going to 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,” he concluded.

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