Buttigieg Blasts Vance As Betraying His Roots Just Like Certain Other Trump VP: But ‘Hope Things Work Out a Little Better’ For Him

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blasted Donald Trump running mate JD Vance as someone who will say whatever he needs to so he can “get ahead,” and compared him to Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence .

On the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, the comic and pundit asked Buttigieg for his thoughts on Vance, who is also from the Midwest and of a similar age.

Buttigieg compared Vance to Pence as someone with evangelical roots who threw away his principles in order to “get ahead” and in pursuit of power.

Cabinet official Buttigieg then added that he hopes Vance and Pence do not share the same fate when it comes to Trump voters, with a very pointed reference to January 6th.

“I actually watched this exact same process with somebody else I got to know in my days in the Midwest, which was, my former governor, Mike Pence. Who I watched start out as an evangelical Christian who cared about rectitude and family values and then get on board with a guy who was mixed up with a porn star, make excuses for him so that he could have power. And then he did,” Buttigieg said of Pence. “He got four glorious years, I guess, as Vice president of the United States. And it ended on the west front of the Capitol, with Trump supporters proposing that he be hanged for using the one shred of integrity he still had to stand up to an attempt to overthrow the government.”

Driving it home, the former mayor added, “So I guess, maybe not as a politician, but as a human being, what I’ll say is that I hope things work out a little bit better for JD Vance than it did for him.”

Buttigieg also said Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel back Trump and Vance because they are “very rich man who have decided to back the Republican party which does very good things for very rich men.”

BUTTIGIEG : We’re from the same generation. We’re both from the Midwest, different parts of the Midwest. I know a lot of guys like J.D. Vance. I run into a lot of guys like him…

MAHER : Peter Thiel is his big backer…If people don’t know who that is, he started PayPal. He’s gay. He’s a billionaire. I mean, I’ve had a couple of people who knew we were coming on this week to ask Pete what he thinks about Peter Thiel being so in love with JD Vance, who is flatly against gay marriage.

BUTTIGIEG : So I think it’s a profound contradiction. But maybe it’s not that complicated. I know there are a lot of folks who say, what’s going on with some of these Silicon Valley folks veering into Trump world with JD Vance and backing Trump. What are they thinking Silicon Valley they’re supposed to care about climate. They’re supposed to be, you know, be pro-science and rational and libertarian. So normally libertarians don’t like authoritarians. What’s up with that? I think it’s actually we’ve made it way too complicated. Super simple. These are very rich men who have decided to back the Republican Party that tends to do good things for very rich men.

That’s kind of what you’re getting with JD. Right. So, I knew a lot of people like him when. When I got to Harvard, I found a lot of people like him who would say whatever they needed to to get ahead. And five years ago, that seemed like being the anti-Trump Republican. So that’s what he was, talking about. How he was unfit, how he was cynical, called him an opioid, which is kind of a weird thing to say about a person, but definitely a really. But I mean, for somebody who’s identity is that they’re connected to Appalachia, which has an opioid crisis, that really is the darkest thing you could possibly say about Donald Trump, at least in public. But behind the scenes, apparently, is actually calling him Hitler, right? Seriously, five years later, the way he gets ahead is that he’s the greatest guy since sliced bread.

And I actually watched this exact same process with somebody else I got to know in my days in the Midwest, which was, my former governor, Mike Pence. Who I watched start out as an evangelical Christian who cared about rectitude and family values and then get on board with a guy who was, mixed up with a porn star, make excuses for him so that he could have power. And then he did. He got four glorious years, I guess, as Vice president of the United States. And it ended on the west front of the Capitol, with Trump supporters proposing that he be hanged for using the one shred of integrity he still had to stand up to an attempt to overthrow the government. So I guess, maybe not as a politician, but as a human being, what I’ll say is that I hope things work out a little bit better for JD Vance than it did for him.

Watch the clip above via HBO’s Real Time.