Democratic South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg attacked conservative Christians Tuesday during the Democratic debate, claiming that opposition to a minimum wage hike runs contrary to the Bible.
“So called conservative Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage,” Buttigieg said. “When scripture says whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.”
Buttigieg has made attacking conservative Christians a staple of his campaign. The mayor famously began a feud with Vice President Mike Pence over Pence’s orthodox Christian views. (RELATED: John Kasich Is Dead Wrong On Morality)
Buttigieg has charged that Pence has a “problem” with Buttigieg due to the mayor’s homosexuality. However, after Buttigieg came out as gay in 2015, then Indiana Gov. Pence praised the South Bend mayor, calling him a “patriot,” and saying that he holds him in the “highest personal regard.”
Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg (L) meets with Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual International Convention on July 2, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
During the first Democratic debate last month, Buttigieg also levied charges of hypocrisy against conservative Christians, taking aim at President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Makes Dragging Christians A Campaign Theme)
“The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion,” Buttigieg said at the time. “We should call hypocrisy and for a party that associates with Christianity to say it is okay to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages has lost all claim to ever use religion language again.”