Pence knocks Buttigieg for criticizing him: 'He knows better'

Days after South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg directly attacked Mike Pence for his stance on LGBT issues, the Republican vice president denounced the comments, saying the 2020 hopeful “knows better.”

“He’s said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally. And he knows better,” Pence said Thursday in a CNBC interview. “He knows me.”

Conservatives have accused the 37-year-old candidate of bashing the vice president to endear his campaign — which garnered an explosion of interest in the last month — among those on the left, particularly liberal Christians and the LGBT community.

Buttigieg on Sunday again went after Pence from the campaign trail, speaking about his own decision to come out as gay in 2015 at the LGBTQ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch in Washington, D.C.

“If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade,” Buttigieg said. “And that's the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me — your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”