Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) blasted Mayor Pete Buttigieg during a Black Women Power Breakfast for comparing the discrimination he has faced as a gay man to the struggles of black Americans.
Speaking at the event hosted by Higher Heights, Harris took aim at remarks Buttigieg made at the debate about how he feels he can relate to those who are discriminated on based on their skin color.
During this week’s debate, Harris had been discussing issues facing black Americans when Buttigieg chimed in with his own experiences.
“I care about this because while I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country,” Buttigieg said. “Turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate, and seeing my rights expanded by a coalition of people like me and people not at all like me, working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, making it possible for me to be standing here wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn’t have happened two elections ago, lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day — even if they are nothing like me in their experience.”
His effort to relate did not sit well with Harris, who blasted the Indiana mayor as “naïve.”
“Those of us who’ve been involved in civil rights for a long time, we know that it is important that we not compare our struggles,” Harris said at the breakfast. “It is not productive, it is not smart and strategically, [and] it works against what we need to do which is build coalition.”
“We know that in our ongoing fight for civil rights if any one of us starts to differentiate ourselves in a certain way and, in particular, what he did on the stage,” she continued. “It’s just not productive and I think it’s a bit naïve.”
The Daily Wire pointed out that this is the second time she has referred to Buttigieg as naïve. In November, she also used the term to describe him after he said that the race was dwindling down to himself and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
“Well, I think that’s just, that it’s naïve for him to think that at this point that the fate of this election has been determined,” Harris said at the time. “Just look at history. He might need to review to know that what’s happening right now is not necessarily determinative of the outcome.”
