Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio accused Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg early Monday of prioritizing “fake problems.”
Buttigieg criticized the senator on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday for having time to feud with Disney, then saying codifying same-sex marriage is a “stupid waste of time.” Rubio hit back at the remarks, arguing President Joe Biden’s administration prioritizes issues that do not matter to the American people.
“We have a Harvard-educated transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who apparently never learned that there’s a difference between the state level and the federal level,” he said in a video posted to Twitter. “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.”
Working Americans,of every background,struggle with real problems like gas prices & flight cancellations
But we have a Transportation Secretary who wants us to focus on a fake problem & who went to Harvard but apparently doesn’t know the difference between state & federal issues pic.twitter.com/hI5rMKvwvX
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 24, 2022
Rubio mocked Buttigieg’s $1 billion dollar anti-racist infrastructure project, aimed at improving the roads and infrastructure of communities that were “racially segregated” and negatively impacted by the 1950s expansion of the interstate highway system. He also blasted Buttigieg for allegedly celebrating high gas prices in order to persuade people to buy electric vehicles. (RELATED: ‘They Can Vote Yes And Move On’: Pete Buttigieg Attacks Republicans Voting Against Gay Marriage)
“We have a transportation secretary, Pete Buttgieg, who believes that highways can be racist,” the senator continued. “He also believes that $5 gas, which is killing working Americans, 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,” he added. “I’m not going to focus on the agenda that’s 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.”
Buttigieg pointed to Rubio’s previous criticism of Disney over their opposition to the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, which became law March 28, prohibiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 in Florida. The bill also grants parents the right to opt their children out of health services, and requires faculty to notify parents and guardians of any changes to the child’s physical, mental or emotional health.
“The @WaltDisneyCo filmed Mulan near #Uighur genocide camps & then thanked the people who run those camps in the credits,” Rubio said via Twitter. “But they are outraged that Florida schools will not be indoctrinating 5-year-olds on ‘gender identity.’”
The House passed legislation Thursday to codify the Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which deemed unconstitutional the outlawing of same-sex marriage on the state level. Forty-seven Republicans, along with all 220 Democrats, voted in favor of the bill, titled the Respect for Marriage Act. As the bill currently awaits a vote in the Senate, Rubio vowed to vote against it.