A former Obama speechwriter just told Democrats that gay slurs are now acceptable strategy — as long as it means winning Senate seats.
Jon Lovett, co-host of the prominent liberal podcast Pod Save America, made the stunning remarks Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival while defending Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola against allegations she repeatedly used anti-gay slurs against her own staff.
“Do I think it’s great if a boss calls an employee a f*ggot? No, but I think the Senate’s more important.”
Lovett — who served as a speechwriter for President Barack Obama — didn’t stop there. He went on a profanity-laced rant suggesting gay voters would happily accept slurs in exchange for Democratic power.
“There’s not a gay guy from Austin to underneath the docks in Provincetown who wouldn’t be happily called a c*m guzzling f*ggot to have a Democratic Senate,” Lovett said, according to the Daily Wire.
He suggested Peltola could literally kneel before gay Alaskans and Texas voters and declare: “You may call us whatever the f*ck you want, Mary Peltola, if you win this seat.”
The podcast host framed opposition to Peltola’s alleged slurs as a “privilege” — claiming the stakes of preventing Donald Trump from appointing judges outweigh workplace abuse concerns.
Nine former staffers told the New York Times they witnessed Peltola’s jarring workplace conduct. Four said they personally heard her use the anti-gay slur “f*ggot” over the years — at times directed at members of her own staff. She also allegedly wished a female Planned Parenthood leader would die from a “botched abortion.”
Peltola’s campaign has disputed some characterizations in the report and attributed her struggles to the deaths of her husband and mother in 2023.
Lovett reserved his harshest words not for Peltola — but for the staffers who spoke to the Times.
“And the fact that there are people that would be working for a Democratic member of Congress who may have been rude and mean at the darkest moment in her life, by the way, like after experiencing incredible tragedy, and then six weeks before an election to leak that to the Times?” he said.
“You have to feed her lizard, and you’re mad, then quit or shut up,” he yelled.
The hypocrisy is staggering. For years, Democrats and Left-wing activists have demanded the “canceling” of conservatives over far milder comments — some dug up from social media posts made years earlier. Careers have been destroyed. Reputations shredded.
But when a Democratic Senate seat hangs in the balance, the same party suddenly dismisses workplace abuse and anti-gay slurs as a “price worth paying.”
Peltola is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate race. The contest is one of several key battles Democrats need to hold or flip to maintain Senate control.
Lovett co-hosts Pod Save America alongside fellow former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Dan Pfeiffer. The podcast has become one of the most influential voices in progressive politics.
The question conservatives are asking: Would Lovett extend the same grace to a Republican accused of the same conduct?
