Democratic presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg slammed Beto O’Rourke over the weekend after he made his statement about churches tax-exempt status if he’s elected.

Beto said that churches who do not bow the knee to same-sex marriage should and will lose their tax-exempt status under his regime.

Beto was asked by Don Lemon during the LGBT town hall if he thought religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?

He immediately responded with an affirmative saying, “there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.”

Pete Buttigieg says he disagrees with fellow 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke on using tax-exempt status to reinforce anti-discrimination laws with religious institutions: “I think that’s just going to deepen the divisions that we’re already experiencing.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/8DOR9yZRpL

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 13, 2019

Buttigieg had the following to say in response to Beto:

“I agree that anti-discrimination law ought to be applied to all institutions, but the idea you are going to strip churches of their tax-exempt status if they have not found their way toward blessing same-sex marriage, I’m not sure he understands the implications of what he’s saying,” Buttigieg told Jake Tapper.

“That means going to war, not only with churches, but with mosques and a lot of organizations that may not have the same view of various religious principles that I do. But also because of the separation of church and state are acknowledged as nonprofits in this country.”

“If we want to talk about anti-discrimination law for a school or an organization, absolutely,” Buttigieg said. “They should not be able to discriminate.”

“But going after the tax exception of churches, Islamic centers or other religious facilities in this country, I think that is just going to deepen the divisions that we’re experiencing at a moment when we’re seeing more and more people motivated often by compassion and by people they love moving in the right direction on LGBTQ rights,” he continued. “Which is obviously extremely important to me personally.”