Richard Grenell Compares Pete Buttigieg to Jussie Smollett, Says His Assertion That Pence is Anti-Gay is a ‘Hate Hoax’ — WATCH

Richard Grenell, the gay conservative U.S. Ambassador to Germany compared Pete Buttigieg to Jussie Smollett, and claimed Mayor Pete's statements about Mike Pence's anti-gay actions as governor are false (they're not) and a “hate hoax.”

RELATED: Here's a Recap of Mike Pence's Attacks on LGBT Rights – READ

Said Grenell: “Mayor Pete has been pushing this hate hoax, along the lines of Jussie Smollett, for a very long time now, several weeks. And I find it really ironic that Mayor Pete stayed silent about the so-called hate hoax on him and others during 2015, 2016, 2017 when Mike Pence was governor. There was total silence. It's ironic that right about now when he's starting his fundraising apparatus to run for president that he comes up with this idea and this attack.”

“One of the things that really bothers me about this attack is that Mike Pence is a friend of mine,” Grenell continued. “Mike and Karen are great people, they're godly people, they're followers of Christ. They don't have hate in their heart for anyone. They know my partner. They have accepted us. Now you ask me do we agree philosophically on every single issue? No. I don't agree philosophically with my hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer on everything. I don't agree with my partner on everything. The gay community used to be the community pushing tolerance and diversity. We were the ones that were saying everyone should be able to love and accept each other. Now suddenly there's a whole community of people demanding that we all think alike. I think it's outrageous. When Mayor Pete came out the vice president complimented him and said he holds him in high regard. The vice president or then governor has said nothing but positive things about Mayor Pete. I think this is a total hate hoax and I think it's outrageous.”

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Pence, as his record shows, is no friend to the LGBTQ community. In 2000 during his first successful run for Congress, Pence said that he was in favor of sending money allocated to care for people with HIV/AIDS to organizations that provide conversion therapy.

From running a think-tank that published virulently anti-gay articles, to attempting to divert HIV/AIDS money to fund conversion therapy, to refusing to protect LGBT Hoosiers from discrimination, to legalizing anti-LGBT discrimination in Indiana, to cozying up to notorious homophobes, to supporting a ban on gay marriage, and decrying the ‘mainstreaming of homosexuality in the military' after DADT was repealed, Pence's record is among the worst records on LGBTQ issues of anyone who has ever occupied the office of the Vice President.

But Grenell has his own issues, as the Washington Blade noted: “First nominated by Trump in September, Grenell waited nearly eight months for confirmation in the Senate. Grenell faced opposition over mean tweets about the appearance of women, including Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow and Callista Gingrich, and tweets downplaying the impact of Russia meddling in the 2016 election.”