Pete Buttigieg: Trump and Vance are peddling "darkness" when U.S. wants "joy"

What he's saying: Buttigieg said Vance "is one of those guys who thinks if you don't live the life he has in mind for you, then you don't count."

• He's "someone who said that if you don't have kids, you have, quote, no physical commitment to the future of this country."
• "Choosing a guy like JD Vance to be America's next vice president sends a message, all right: doubling down on negativity and grievance," Buttigieg added.
• Buttigieg said Trump and Vance were "committing to a concept of campaigning that's summed up in one word: darkness. Darkness is what they are selling."
• But he said he didn't believe "that America today is in the market for darkness."

Zoom in: Buttigieg said "the right kind of politics" had made it possible for him as a gay man to have the political and military career he's had, and to be married with children.

• The fact that he and his husband have a family is "just one example of something that was literally impossible as recently as 25 years ago when an anxious teenager growing up in Indiana wondered if he would ever find belonging in the world," he said.

• "I believe in a better politics, one that finds us at our most decent and open and brave, the kind of politics that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are offering," he added, noting "there is joy in it" as well as "talent."

More from Axios:

• "Dark and ominous tone" JD Vance slams Tim Walz's DNC speech
• Oprah hails Harris as "the best of America" in DNC speech
• Bill Clinton in DNC speech: "I'm still younger than Donald Trump"
• "Not going back": Walz formally accepts Democratic VP nomination