Abby Huntsman said Thursday that 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg made her “uncomfortable” when he presumed to tell people “what God thinks.”
Huntsman, back on ABC’s “The View” after maternity leave, said that any candidate who attempted to claim knowledge of what God would support bothered her. But she appeared to be more concerned when it was Buttigieg. (RELATED: ‘The Greatest Gift To Republicans’: Abby Huntsman Wants Democrats To Keep Focus On Ocasio-Cortez)
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Fellow co-host Joy Behar brought up the comments Buttigieg made during CNN’s climate town hall Wednesday, saying that she felt he was being helpful when he brought religion into the conversation.
“Pete Buttigieg was very interesting on the subject of religion and the climate change, and I’ll just read what he said,” Behar began. “What she’s saying is that the secular left by making fun of the power of prayer or whatever maybe in her case, the power of creative visualization is losing voters by making fun of them and Pete Buttigieg makes the case that, you know, he says, ‘If you believe God is watching as poison is being belched into the air of His creation and people are being harmed by it, countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas. What do you suppose God thinks of that? I bet He thinks it’s messed up, and you don’t have to be religious to see the moral dimensions of this. At least one way of talking about this is it’s a kind of sin.'”
Behar continued in the same vein, adding, “And I don’t believe that God — if God exists, wants his planet to be destroyed. So I don’t get why religious people are not climate enthusiasts, climate, you know, what do you call it? They are mainly climate deniers.”
“There’s been hypocrisy in politics and media for years, but that made me uncomfortable,” Huntsman cut in. The Williamson thing made me uncomfortable, and I love Mayor Pete.”
“Why does this make you uncomfortable?” Behar asked.
“I never want to be in the business of telling people what I think God thinks, and I’m a huge proponent — let me finish though,” Huntsman trailed off as her co-hosts talked over her.
“This is my personal opinion. I’m a very spiritual person,” she continued after a pause. “I have always been a defender of the separation of church and state, and I don’t like mixing the two. That for me, hearing Pete Buttigieg talking about what he thinks God thinks and telling the people they should then think what God thinks, that was uncomfortable for me.”
Behar fired back as the segment wrapped: “You should talk to Pence and the Republican Party about that.”