Pete Buttigieg used 1 word to tell 190,000 “white dudes” why to support Kamala Harris

Out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined a massive three-and-a-half-hour “White Dudes for Harris” virtual call last night in which over 190,000 participants raised over $4 million for the campaign of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. During the call, Buttigieg focused on the one reason that people should support Harris: freedom.

Immediately after the call concluded, the X account for the organizing group, @dudes4harris, was suspended by X. The account remains online, but its administrator says that X has restricted it to “read-only,” so that it cannot make new posts or interact with followers. X is owned by transphobic right-wing billionaire Elon Musk.

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Over 25,000 LGBTQ+ people attend call for Kamala Harris as enthusiasm mounts

Queer actors George Takei, Raven Symoné, and Zachary Quinto spoke at the event alongside numerous LGBTQ+ elected officials.

Buttigieg addressed viewers early into the call—which was independently organized by men who are not a part of Harris’ campaign. He spoke alongside other notable politicians and celebrities, including gay singer Lance Bass; straight actors Jeff Bridges, Mark Hamill, and Joseph Gordon Levitt; and Democratic Governors Tim Walz (MN), J.B. Pritzker (IL), and Roy Cooper (NC).

Buttigieg began by saying that the “vibes” among Democrats right now are “incredible,” noting, “I haven’t seen [this] kind of energy for Democrats in Michigan since I campaigned in the midterms for leaders like Gretchen Whitmer, and we all know how that turned out. The momentum is extraordinary.” (Whitmer handily won her 2023 midterm re-election by nearly half a million votes.)

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The transportation secretary emphasized to the call’s attendees the importance of remembering and conveying to others “not just what we’re up against, but what we believe in and what we’re for, not just what we’re trying to stop… but what we’re working to sustain.”

He then mentioned former President Donald Trump’s “clear” “unfitness for office,” adding, “You can see that his campaign is flailing. He’s reverting to his worst instincts.” He cited Trump’s choice of running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), as evidence that Trump is “doubling down on the very worst of it — from the anti-woman rhetoric to this deep entanglement with Project 2025,” a conservative blueprint for Trump to establish an anti-democratic Christian Nationalist government during his second term.

“But for all of that,” Buttigieg continued, “what’s really filling my sails right now, and I think Kalama Harris is expressing so well right now, is the positive side of all this, a reminder of what we are for: namely, freedom. I’m so glad she has made freedom the theme of her campaign because I think, in so many ways, that’s what’s at stake.”

Buttigieg focused on this theme for the remainder of his nearly five-minute speech, saying that men and the country as a whole are freer when they have access to reproductive healthcare like abortion and in vitro fertilization, the right for everyone to marry who they love, affordable health insurance that prevents medical emergencies from bankrupting people, environmental policies that help future generations avoid the worst aspects of climate change, common sense gun laws that allow young people to feel free from harm in schools, and infrastructure policies that ensure access to good jobs.

“I think the work that we’re collectively doing right now on having a better democracy should be powerfully motivating to freedom-loving Americans and to every part of our coalition, including the dudes on this call,” he said. “These are things that remind me that we’re not just trying to stop our democracy from being undermined—although we’re definitely working to do that—we are looking to make our union more perfect, we’re making it better.”

“So, to my way of thinking, it’s less so that we are saving our democracy and more that we are building one, and that’s what we’re part of, and that’s definitely something as a father that I’m excited about being able to tell my kids when they’re old enough to ask them what we did in this incredibly important, really decisive decade of American history, that we came together to make sure that there was a good outcome and supporting Kamala Harris is a huge, huge part of that.”

Buttigieg has emerged as an ardent public supporter of Harris since she entered the race just over a week ago. He has made multiple appearances on late-night talk shows and news programs touting her qualifications and refutations of talking points from the Trump campaign. Notably, he is among the short list of candidates that Harris is considering as possible running mates.

Minutes after the call concluded, the social media account of the organizing group, @dudes4harris, was suspended from X for allegedly violating policies connected to evading suspension on the platform. The account’s owners say they have unsuccessfully tried to communicate with X to understand why the account was suspended. Some X commenters blamed Musk, the site’s owner, for deliberately blocking a group that opposes his right-wing political views.

UPDATE –

Our tweets are back (@dudes4harris) but our account remains suspended and according to Twitter our account is “permanently in read-only mode.”

We’re asking people to keep donating to @KamalaHarris and to keep sharing our tweets on this and other platforms. Don’t let… pic.twitter.com/IEzlCJX30E

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) July 30, 2024

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