Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke to Dana Bash on Sunday, during a segment of CNN’s “State of the Union,” weighing in on JD Vance presenting himself as someone who is "suddenly very particular about precision in speech and very concerned about honesty," directing attention to the man he's running with, Donald Trump, who was recently called out for making 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies during his hour-long news conference on Thursday, fact-checked by NPR.
On the subject of Vance stating in a recent interview of his own on CNN that Kamala Harris' VP pick, Tim Walz, lied about his military service for "political gain," Buttigieg told Bash:
"There’s something I think much bigger at play here . . . He’s running with Donald Trump, somebody who has set records for lying in public life. He just gave a press conference where fact-checkers estimate that he told 162 distortions or lies that, frankly, is just impressive in terms of being able to physically do that. It’s like the Olympics of lying. So maybe just because it’s Sunday morning, I can’t stop thinking about the scripture that says, how can you look at your brother and say, let me take the speck out of your eye when you have a plank in your own eye?”
Buttigieg: "I watched @JDVance present himself as suddenly...very concerned about honesty. He's running w/Trump, [who] just gave a press conference where..he told 160 lies. That frankly is impressive in terms of being able to physically do that. It's like the Olympics of lying" pic.twitter.com/NkThoRw9Uj
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) August 11, 2024
Per NPR, the outlet that ran the numbers on Trump's fibs during his presser as being more than two a minute, Vance's questioning of Walz' service was met with grace by his opponents. In a statement from the Harris campaign, they write:
“In his 24 years of service, the governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American's service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It's the American way."
