Former Buttigieg campaign adviser called Christine Blasey Ford 'Looney Tunes' in texts to team Cuomo

Buttigieg, who publicly championed the Kavanaugh accuser, was being advised by a woman who separately called Ford "the height of Me Too overreach"

By Sophie Mann

Published: November 30, 2021 11:26am

Updated: November 30, 2021 2:39pm

Text messages released as a part of the probe into former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo show a former top political adviser to then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg sharing disparaging sentiments about Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

A text exchange uncovered by Josefa Velásquez, a senior reporter at The City, reveals that Lis Smith – a former senior adviser to Pete Buttigieg, and former girlfriend of disgraced New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer – called Blasey Ford "looney tunes," and "the height of Me Too overreach."

During the time that Smith was serving as a senior adviser and communications specialist on the Buttigieg campaign, the candidate voiced full-throated messages of support for Ford including one from 2019 that read, "Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a profile in courage. One year later, I still believe her."

Smith reportedly worked on Cuomo's 2018 campaign and was in communication with Cuomo allies and insiders as the politician's career unraveled during the spring and summer of this year amid allegations of allegations of sexual harrassment.

Furthermore, the texts reveal that Smith was evidently helping to work the media as accusations mounted against the now-former governor.

I'm texting w (NBC's) Katy Tur," wrote Smith. "Katy is saying my spin live. Like verbatim."

But Smith was apparently hesitant for her involvement with Cuomo's team to become a matter of public knowledge.

"It was a big national story, you know, big fire storm and it was not something that I felt like I needed to be in the middle of," she told investigators.