FILE – In this March 27, 2015 file photo, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks about the area’s opposition to the recently signed religious freedom legislation in downtown South Bend. Buttigieg has come out as gay in a newspaper editorial. The first-term Democratic mayor says in the personal essay published Tuesday, June 16 in the South Bend Tribune that he was well into adulthood before he was prepared to acknowledge that he’s gay. (Greg Swiercz/South Bend Tribune via AP)

Pete Buttigeig is an interesting character to me. When he first landed on the scene, he quickly supplanted Amy Klobuchar as the “conservative” 2020 favorite in the Democratic field. He was supposedly “moderate” and he liked Chick-Fil-A. I mean, what matters more than that? This was a guy they could work with because he was rational and wanted to have polite discussions.

Then the mask came off.

Buttigieg released his policy platform and he’s basically Bernie Sanders with more extreme views on guns.

.@PeteButtigieg releases some policy proposals:

—Medicare option (not single payer)
—Debt-free public college
—Commission to propose reparations
—Equal Rights Amendment
—Repeal Hyde Amdmt
—Equality Act
—Green New Deal
—“Evaluate” ICE/CBP
—$15 wage
—Gun checks/assault weapons ban

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 17, 2019

In addition to supporting universal background checks, an "assault weapons" ban, and preventing people who are on the no-fly list from being able to buy guns, @PeteButtigieg also wants a "nationwide gun licensing system." pic.twitter.com/UoCrj649gH

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 17, 2019

To this day, he continues to attack Mike Pence, completely unprovoked, as a bigot. This despite the fact that Pence has done nothing but praise and support Buttigieg.

Now things are getting even weirder, or more disgusting depending on how you want to view it. Buttigieg recently did an interview with Hugh Hewitt and the topic landed on discussions about different strains of Islamism. Hewitt was trying to get his view on the Shia Wahhabism we see from Iran as compared to Shite variety.

Here was Buttigeig’s answer.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg compares Iran's variant of Shia extremism and Wahhabism — which is the source of the overwhelming majority of Islamic terrorism — to Christianity pic.twitter.com/fYNYnHT3wR

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 17, 2019

“Do you find Iranians’ variant of Shia extremism to be more dangerous to the world than the Sunni variant that we see in the Taliban and perhaps in Hamas and some of the more radical elements of Wahhabism?” Hewitt asked.

“Well, you know, not unlike Christianity when it is motivating someone to do something extreme,” Buttigieg responded. “It can have a thousand different flavors.”

What in the literal….

Actually, I don’t “know” because such an assertion is objectively garbage. There is zero comparison between Christianity and Wahhabism in today’s world, mostly because what we are seeing in Muslim countries is as much political as it is religious. Do individual Christians sometimes do bad, evil things? Sure, but there’s no “Christian” country on earth that compares to Iran nor is their any mainline Christian movement that compares to Wahhabism. There’s nothing even in the same universe. Wahhabism is also not just some random strain mixed within thousands of sects of Islam as Pete tries to make it sound. It’s a predominant, dangerous, and pervasive cancer of an ideology.

Secondly, how does his statement even attempt to actually answer the question? Is he afraid to call out radical Islamism? Does he want to pretend it’s not widespread in the Middle East and Africa?

The whataboutism here is nonsense and it’s cowardly. Buttigieg doesn’t have the guts to speak the truth about what he’s asked, so he deflects with a “well, it’s just like Christianity” straw man. No, it’s not like Christianity. It’s pretty much the polar opposite of Christianity.

The fact that this guy became and continues to be a darling of the Bulwarkian crowd should tell you all you need to know about their “principles.” Being nice is not a substitute for harmful political and personal views. There is more to the Office of the President than decorum and cocktail parties. It’s time for some “conservatives” to figure that out already and stop propping guys like Buttigieg up.