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How tall is Pete Buttigieg? Obama allegedly said rising Democrat was ‘gay and too short’ to win election, Internet ‘embarrassed’

Obama allegedly told a group of 'wealthy black donors' that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg didn't stand a chance to win the presidency

Real Name	Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg
Date of Birth	19 January 1982
Place of Birth	South Bend, Indiana, United States
Age	41 years
Height	5ft 8 in (172.7 cm)
Weight	70 kgs (154 lbs)
Net Worth	$25 million
Nationality	American
Spouse	Chasten Buttigieg
Eye Color	Ice Blue

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA: A new book about the 2020 presidential election titled 'Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency', co-authored by Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen, reportedly claims that former president Barack Obama joked about Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg's height of 5ft 8 in (172.7 cm) and his sexuality. 

According to The Blaze, The Hill and NBC journalists Parnes and Allen claim in their book that Obama told a group of "wealthy black donors" that former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg didn't stand a chance to win the presidency.  

Barack Obama joked about Pete Buttigieg saying 'he's gay and short' 

In the meeting that occurred in 2019, Obama allegedly took a dig at Buttigieg's age, sexual orientation, and height. The excerpts shared by the publication read:

"When he was asked to return to the original question on his advice, Obama said he liked Buttigieg, a rising talent who'd worked on his own campaign. But despite his affinity for the South Bend mayor, he rattled off a list of reasons why Buttigieg couldn't win."

""He's thirty-eight," Obama said, pausing for dramatic effect, "but he looks thirty." The audience laughed. Obama was on a roll, using the tone of light ridicule he sometimes pointed at himself — "big ears" and "a funny name," he'd said so many times before. Now, it was directed at Buttigieg. "He's the mayor of a small town," the former president continued. "He's gay," Obama said, "and he's short." More laughter."

The book also noted, "Only months earlier, Buttigieg had sat in Obama's postpresidential office in Washington seeking counsel on how to maintain equanimity in the face of homophobia on the campaign trail."

"Now, behind his back, Obama was riffing on him to some of the wealthiest Black men in America at a time when Buttigieg had been dubbed "Mayo Pete" by critics who believed he couldn't connect with African American voters," it added.

Pete Buttigieg's height

While Buttigieg himself did not discuss his height when Daily Dot reportedly contacted his campaign, they announced that he was 5 feet 9 inches.

One Twitter user, Manager of the Folkhemmet, who claims to be a student, once shared on Twitter that they learned Buttigieg's height to be 5 feet 9 inches from his campaign.

The tweet read, "On a lighter note, one of my friends apparently had to verify Pete Buttigieg's height for extra credit in her class. She ended up calling his campaign and getting the information from a staffer, only for her professor to not believe the provided height."

Internet calls Obama's remark 'cruel and bigoted'

Responding to the claims made in the book, one Twitter user wrote, "Obama saying Pete Buttigieg being to short & too gay to be President sounds cruel & bigoted. But let’s stop and look at our voters. The MAGA crowd wasn’t exactly pro-LGBTQ & homophobia isn’t limited to just them. Height would be a perception thing."

Another wrote, "sdksfjldk i felt so embarrassed when i got that notif for the article abt obama calling pete too short and gay to run."

"Obama claimed Buttigieg couldn’t win election because ‘he’s gay’ and ‘short’. So Bo can call Pete a gay and get a laugh of of it. Trump on the other hand would have been burned at the stake.. amazing how journalism has become the national inquirer," someone else tweeted.

Pete Buttigieg's failed 2020 Presidential campaign

In 2020, Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and the first openly gay major presidential candidate, announced the suspension of his 2020 campaign, stating that "the path has narrowed to a close." Despite leading the primary race initially, Buttigieg encountered difficulties in building a broad voter coalition and suffered a significant setback in South Carolina.

During the final weeks of his campaign, Buttigieg took a distinctive approach compared to his competitors, with a particular focus on Senator Bernie Sanders. He expressed his opposition to Sanders' call for an "ideological revolution" and his push for a comprehensive overhaul of the American healthcare system.

Pete Buttigieg's birthday

Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (/ˈbuːtədʒədʒ/ BOOT-ə-jəj) marks his birthday on January 19, born in the year 1982. He is currently 41 years old. 

Pete Buttigieg's family

Pete Buttigieg's husband

Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet member to be Senate-confirmed, has found unwavering support in his biggest cheerleader, his husband. Pete and Chasten Buttigieg, a teacher, share an incredibly sweet and supportive relationship. The couple exchanged vows at the Episcopal Cathedral of St James in South Bend in June 2018.

Pete and Chasten first crossed paths in the summer of 2015 through Hinge. Their initial date unfolded in a rom-com fashion, bonding over Scotch eggs and watching a baseball game that culminated with fireworks, as reported by Oprah Daily. The couple shares a son and daughter whom they welcomed to the family on September 4. 

Pete Buttigieg's parents

Born on January 19, 1982, in South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg is the only child of Jennifer Anne and Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II. Anne Montgomery, his mother, and Joseph, both faculty members at New Mexico State University, met and married during their tenure there.

Buttigieg's father, originally from Hamrun, Malta, migrated to the US for his doctorate, settling near South Bend. He became a professor at the University of Notre Dame, influencing Buttigieg's academic interests. Anne dedicated 29 years to teaching at the same university.

Pete Buttigieg's siblings

As of now, there is no information available on Pete Buttigieg's siblings. However, Pete Buttigieg's father, Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II, grew up with 8 siblings, as his obituary states. 

Pete Buttigieg's early life and career

Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg, also known as Pete Buttigieg, is the first openly gay cabinet member in US history. He has been the US Secretary of Transportation since 2021 in the Joe Biden administration. Prior to this, he served as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020. In 2020, he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Buttigieg graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in history and literature in 2004. He later attended Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, earning a bachelor's in philosophy, politics, and economics from Pembroke College in 2007. He then worked for the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Chicago. In 2008, he became an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve, where he served until 2017.

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana

Upon assuming office in January 2012, Buttigieg became the youngest mayor of an American city with over 100,000 residents. During his first term, he initiated an ambitious program to address over 1,000 abandoned houses in South Bend. His "Smart Streets" project also revitalized the city's downtown by reconfiguring its streets and sidewalks, attracting significant new investments.

In 2014, Buttigieg temporarily left his mayoral role for a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan as part of the Navy Reserve. In June 2015, he publicly came out as gay in an essay published in the South Bend Tribune. In 2018, he married Chasten Glezman, a schoolteacher.

Buttigieg easily secured re-election in November 2015. In his second term, racial tensions escalated in South Bend, notably following the fatal shooting of Eric Logan, a Black resident, by a white police sergeant in 2019. Buttigieg faced criticism for his management of the police department.

During this period, Buttigieg's national prominence grew, and in 2017, he entered the race for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. In 2018, he declared he wouldn't run for a third term as mayor, and he left office in 2020.

Awards won by Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg was awarded the 2021 Winner Critics' Choice Documentary Award for the most compelling living subject of a documentary for the film 'Mayor Pete'. He was also a Rhodes scholar in his early days.

Pete Buttigieg's musical pursuits

Pete Buttigieg plays the piano and guitar, and has performed with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, according to his official campaign profile.

Pete Buttigieg's marital status and boyfriend

The American politician and former naval officer, who is currently serving as the 19th United States Secretary of Transportation, has been married to Chasten Buttigieg since 2018. Pete and his husband, an author and former teacher, have shared a inseperable bond while Pete's previous relationships or boyfriends are unknown.

Earlier this year, the couple listed their South Bend, Indiana, home for sale. As per The Washington Post, they currently reside in a one-bedroom apartment in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood, sharing the space with their furry companions.

Pete Buttigieg's social media

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who quickly rose to prominence among Democratic candidates, owes part of his success to the strategic use of social media, notably by his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. Pete actively engages on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, with a particular emphasis on Instagram and Twitter.

Pete Buttigieg's favorite things

According to the New York Magazine, Pete Buttigieg's favorite things include Darn Tough merino wool boot sock full cushion, Vigil's green chile jerky, Eagle Creek switchback 22 carry-on bag, Paper Mate flair felt tip pens, medium point (0.7 mm), Moleskine Cahier soft cover journals, Lagavulin 16-year-old scotch, and Talisker 10-year. On the other hand, Wired reported his favorite things to be his love for God, beer, and his electric Mustang. 

What is Pete Buttigieg's net worth?

Pete Buttigieg's net worth is estimated to be $250,000. In his role as Secretary of Transportation, he currently earns $221,400 per year. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Buttigieg reported an income ranging between $800,000 and $1.2 million between 2019 and 2020.

What is Pete Buttigieg's weight?

Paul Montgomery Buttigieg, nicknamed, Mayor Pete, weighs 70 kgs (154 lbs). 

How does Pete Buttigieg know so many languages?

Buttigieg actually speaks eight languages: English, Norwegian, Spanish, French, Italian, Maltese, Arabic, and Dari. Pete Buttigieg reportedly taught himself Norwegian to read Norwegian fiction.

Although he grew up in El Paso, Texas, where 83% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, it's unclear why he speaks Italian. However, a viral tweet showed him answering questions from an Italian journalist in Italian in April 2019. Buttigieg likely learned Italian from his father, a Maltese immigrant.

He also studied Arabic in college and may have been exposed to it during his time in Afghanistan. Buttigieg learned Dari to communicate with locals during his eight-month posting to Afghanistan as a US Navy Reserve. His proficiency in French was demonstrated when he addressed the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire in April 2019.

What is Pete Buttigieg's ancestry?

Pete Buttigieg is of Maltese origin. Buttigieg (Maltese: Buttiġieġ [bʊtːɪd͡ʒɪːt͡ʃ]) is a Maltese surname, derived from Sicilian Arabic. 

Who is the secretary of transportation in 2023?

Pete Buttigieg is the US Transportation Secretary who assumed the role on February 3, 2021. His confirmation by the United States Senate was endorsed with a vote of 86–13 on February 2, 2021. This historic appointment made Buttigieg the first openly gay man to hold the position, the inaugural openly gay Cabinet secretary, and the youngest individual to serve as Secretary of Transportation.

Did Pete Buttigieg run for president?

Pete Buttigieg made history as the first openly gay candidate to pursue the Democratic nomination for president. At the age of 38, he stood as the youngest candidate in the 2020 primary race.

Why did Pete Buttigieg drop out of 2024 presidential race?

Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay major presidential candidate, suspended his Democratic campaign after a significant defeat in the South Carolina primary, where his lack of support among black Democrats indicated a challenge in constructing a diverse voter coalition.

How did Pete Buttigieg get his money?

In addition to his earnings as mayor and his husband's income as a middle school teacher, Pete Buttigieg has supplemented his finances through his book, 'Shortest Way Home'. Between the beginning of 2018 and May 2019, he received $45,000 in advance and royalties payments for the book, which was released in February 2019. As per a 2019 CNBC report, Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, reported a combined income of $152,643 in 2018, as indicated in their tax returns.

Did Pete Buttigieg and his husband adopt a baby? 

Pete Buttigieg and his husband joyfully announced the arrival of their adopted twins in a social media post in 2021. The couple expressed their delight, stating, "Chasten and I ... are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family." The couple was involved in the adoption process since the beginning of 2021. 

Was Pete Buttigieg appointed by Biden?

As per The New York Times, President Joe Biden nominated Pete Buttigieg to serve as secretary of transportation in 2020. The selection marked a significant move for Biden's transition, as he chose a former opponent. This nomination not only brought a younger perspective to the cabinet but also contributed to its diversity, with Buttigieg becoming its first openly gay member.

What is Pete Buttigieg's salary?

Reportedly, House Republicans have proposed slashing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's salary to just $1 amid ongoing debates over spending bills leading up to the government funding deadline next week. The salary reduction for Buttigieg was introduced by Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene.