LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 presidential campaign (all times local):
7:45 a.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says he’s proud of his marriage and his husband. He was addressing comments from conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh about whether voters would elect him because he’s been “kissing his husband” on stage after debates.
Buttigieg says America should have politics that welcomes everybody and that “I’m not going to be lectured on family values from the like of Rush Limbaugh, or anybody who supports Donald J. Trump as the moral as well as the political leader of the United States.”
Limbaugh said this past week that he envisioned Democrats concluding that “despite all the great ground that’s been covered, that America’s still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president.”
Buttigieg said he came out as gay during a general election as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and received more support from voters than he did in his first race.
Buttigieg spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ and ”Fox News Sunday.’’ He noted that while he loves his husband, that on stage, “we usually just go for a hug.”
___
7:30 a.m.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar says her Democratic presidential campaign has raised $12 million over the past week, citing greater voter interest after her performance in New Hampshire.
The Minnesota senator tells ABC’s “This Week” that she is benefiting from a surge of people who have discovered her campaign after the New Hampshire debate on Feb. 7 and a better-than-expected third-place finish in the state’s primary.
She’s billing the fundraising support as momentum that will allow her to be competitive on the airwaves heading into the Nevada caucus and Super Tuesday contests in early March.
Klobuchar says when she announced her candidacy, many people counted her out, but as voters get to know her, they relate to what her campaign is focused on. She says that campaign message is about “bringing back decency to the White House, and most importantly, having a president that can actually put herself in the shoes of other people in this country.”