Twitter was abuzz Tuesday evening over a brown smudge that appeared on the forehead of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg during the second primary debate.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor thinks it may have been the remains of a gnat he unknowingly killed.
“I have a totally cosmetic, superficial question for you. Did you have a smudge on your forehead last night? And what was that?” CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Buttigieg on “New Day” Wednesday.
“Alright, so our best guess is that it — there were these little, kind of gnats around. Maybe I smushed one and it got on my forehead. I don’t know. I didn’t know about it until after. That’s the thing about having something on your forehead,” he replied. “But hopefully it didn’t distract from the message about what’s at stake in this election.”
“Not at all and it’s also very cool that you killed a gnat on your way out,” Camerota said.
“It shows lightning-quick reflexes,” CNN’s John Berman added.
“Well, you want to show that you can do many things at once in this election,” Buttigieg said.
The smudge eventually disappeared from the mayor’s forehead, but can be seen during his first few moments on stage.
The debate, held in Detroit, featured Buttigieg and nine other Democratic candidates discussing their positions on everything from health care policy and climate change to reparations for African-Americans. The second night of CNN’s Democratic debate will take place Wednesday night and will include the 10 other Democratic candidates.
