South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and 2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg said he doesn’t mind Oprah Winfrey calling him “buttabeep, buttaboop” as he’s just grateful for her attention.
“In the car on the way over, somebody just said that Oprah mentioned me, which is arguably a bigger deal than coming in second in a poll,” Buttigieg said in an interview with WGBH radio in Boston on Tuesday.
According to CNN, Buttigieg had lunch with Winfrey on Sunday at the house of a mutual friend in Los Angeles. She is currently reading his memoir “The Shortest Way Home.”
“I call him Buttabeep, Buttaboop,” Winfrey said during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about her role in 2020 election. “The name’s either going to really hurt or [really help] — I think it’s going to help, actually.”
“Just the other day, I was at Apple with Spielberg and we were in the hallway talking about, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Have you heard of this Butta guy?’ He goes, “No, Butta-who?” I go, ‘Buttabeep, Buttaboop. Look him up,'” she added.
Winfrey added that she is studying all the 2020 Democratic candidates, and is “quietly figuring out where I’m going to use my voice in support.”
Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, has experienced a significant rise in popularity in recent weeks, with a poll in New Hampshire showing him tied in second place behind Joe Biden. However, wider polling shows him doing less favorably, with RealClearPolitics indicating an average of 8.4 percent, well behind the likes of Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
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