Mayor Pete Attacked by Rush Limbaugh Amid Debate over Whether He Is an LGBTQ Trailblazer

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump, has attacked former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in recent days as a "37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage," suggesting the Democrat would look weak next to Trump, whom he described as "Mr. Man." Buttigieg condemned the radio host's homophobic comments, saying he would take no lessons on family values from Limbaugh or Trump. "One thing about my marriage is it's never involved me having to send hush money to a porn star after cheating on my spouse," Buttigieg told CNN's Erin Burnett this week. Buttigieg is the first openly gay candidate ever to win delegates in a presidential nominating contest, but his candidacy has been criticized by many progressive LGBTQ Democrats who say his centrist politics do not reflect the needs of the queer community.

We continue our roundtable discussion on Wednesday's Democratic debate in Nevada. Our guests are Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine, and a columnist for WashingtonPost.com; journalist and activist Raquel Willis, executive editor of Out magazine, who has endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren for president; Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group that has endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders; Annise Parker, the former mayor of Houston, now president of the Victory Fund, which works to increase the number of openly LGBTQ officials in government and has endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president.