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Tucker Carlson; Pete Buttigieg
The far-right commentator made the wild claim on his podcast.
Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson has made the bizarre and unfounded claim that Pete Buttigieg isn’t really gay and said he should answer some “very specific questions about gay sex” to prove Carlson wrong.
Carlson, a former Fox News Channel host, made the statement on the Wednesday episode of his podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show.
His guest, fellow right-wing commentator Michael Knowles brought up the idea that certain identities provide an advantage in liberal politics. “I give you Pete Buttigieg,” he said, and Carlson interjected, “The fake gay guy?”
“I have a friend who thinks he’s a fake gay,” Knowles responded.
“My gay producer was always like ‘he’s not gay.’ He was with a girl like 20 minutes ago and like he wants to be the Democratic nominee, it’s like ‘Time for a gay guy!’” Carlson said.
He added that if he ever interviews Buttigieg, “I’m gonna ask him very specific questions about gay sex and see if he can even answer. I doubt he even knows. You’re not gay, dude. Stop.”
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The discussion of Buttigieg starts at about the 1:57 mark.
This isn’t the first time Carlson has claimed Buttigieg isn’t gay. In a July 2024 broadcast, Carlson likewise cited his producer. “My producer’s like, ’No, it’s totally a pose. He was dating women just a few years ago. That’s totally fake.’ He’s not gay at all,” the host said.
“All gays keep very close track of that stuff,” Carlson said.,
Conversely, Carlson said last year that Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is gay, but the party wouldn't let him come out. Walz has been married to a woman for several years and has two children.
Buttigieg has long been clear about being gay, and in a world where there is still much homophobia, it’s not likely that pretending to be gay would bring him an advantage. He was the first out gay person confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a Cabinet position when he became Transportation secretary in the Biden administration in 2021. He came out in 2015, when he was running for a second term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He noted that “there was some ugliness” after his announcement, but he was reelected with 80 percent of the vote.
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He went on to seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and went farther in the race than any out gay candidate to date. He married his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, in 2018, and they are the parents of twins.
In Carlson’s latest claim, he said of South Bend that Pete Buttigieg “found some benighted Midwestern town that he can become mayor of.” However, Buttigieg is a native of South Bend, and both his parents taught at the University of Notre Dame, which is nearby.
Buttigieg recently decided not to run for a U.S. Senate seat coming open in Michigan, where he and his family live now; Democrat Gary Peters is not seeking reelection next year. That has many speculating that he will make another presidential run in 2028.
There’s no record of him commenting on Carlson’s claims.
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