Lizzo and Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a painful exchange on live TV

Buttigieg embraced every politician's duty of bungling pop culture references.

In a painfully stilted morning appearance on CBS, Pete Buttigieg declared himself "100 percent that nominee" in front of Lizzo herself.

Twitter users are not, to put it in the words of the queen herself, feeling good as hell about it.

Both Buttigieg and Lizzo, who was recently named Time's Entertainer of the Year, appeared on CBS This Morning for separate interviews. In the introduction segment, host Gayle King asked Buttigieg to describe himself right now in three words.


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"Standing near Lizzo, right now," the candidate said. (Technically that's five words, but we'll take it.)

Lizzo answered with "Glamorous, talented, and booty-ful."

Then, King asked Buttigieg if he'd had a DNA test recently, alluding to Lizzo's viral break-up anthem "Truth Hurts."

Here's where it gets even more awkward.

"Yes, and I am 100 percent that nominee ..." he began, embracing every presidential candidate's duty to bungle pop culture references.

Lizzo, appearing to stop him from completing the phrase "100 percent that bitch" on live television, interrupted. When he continued with "nominee," Lizzo fanned herself in relief.

They also posed for this painfully stiff photo in front of an inexplicably placed print out of the Toyota logo. Buttigieg donned his signature politician grin, but Lizzo barely cracked a smile.

The photos of Lizzo and Buttigieg have been making the rounds online ever since. Twitter users noted just how uncomfortable she looked.

Some referenced Buttigieg's past working with McKinsey, which he described as an "amoral" consulting firm. Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow pressed him on whether his 2007 work with Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the firm's clients, had anything to do with the mass layoffs that took place in 2009.

Writer Ira Madison compared the photo to last year's controversial Best Picture Green Book.

Most Twitter users just couldn't get over the Toyota logo in the background.

Are any of us feeling good as hell at this point?

Mashable Potato

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