Buttigieg on Inequality, Campaign Reform, and Matt Damon Playing Him

The Democratic presidential hopeful discussed a wide range of topics with Now This News.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

June 03 2019 2:05 PM EST

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Pete Buttigieg says a hot dog is not a sandwich, that Matt Damon should play him in a biopic, and, more seriously, that he quit using the phrase "all lives matter" when he realized it represented opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The mayor of South Bend, Ind., who is the only openly gay candidate in the Democratic presidential field, made the comments in the new 20 Questions for 2020 feature on Now This News. He's the first of the candidates to be interviewed.

On the "all lives matter" issue, he notes that he saw the phrase as a unifier when he used it in a speech in early 2015, but then he realized it was being used as a "counterslogan" to Black Lives Matter. "Nobody thinks that all lives don't matter," he says. "The point is Black Lives Matter emerged because it had to be said, because a lot of people felt like they could no longer take for granted that their lives were being counted the same as everybody else's."

Buttigieg also reveals that he's gone from being almost antireligious to having faith play a big role in his life, discusses his commitment to fighting all forms of discrimination, and talks about the need for campaign finance reform. Watch below.

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\u201cIn our new series '20 Questions for 2020,' we talk to the candidates to find out who they are, why they\u2019re running, & where they stand on the issues that matter most\n\nFirst up: Mayor @PeteButtigieg on religion in politics, how to fix democracy, & whether hot dogs are sandwiches\u201d
— NowThis (@NowThis) 1559573836