The loudest and most sustained applause for presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg during a CNN town hall-style forum Monday night came for his politically unorthodox response to a recently launched attack on him by the Trump administration.

CNN moderator Anderson Cooper broached the subject with just a few minutes left in the one-hour, 11 p.m. forum –a forum that had been preceded by one-hour forums with each of four other Democratic presidential candidates.

Buttigieg had just responded to a question from an audience member who wanted to hear how his religious beliefs might be used to “challenge the right’s monopoly on moral Christianity” and “unite conservative, moderate, and liberal Christians alike….”

Buttigieg’s answer had rambled a bit.

“It can be challenging to be a person of faith who’s also part of the LGBTQ community,” he replied. “And yet, to me, the core of faith is regard for one another, and part of how God’s love is experienced, according to my faith tradition, is in the way that we support one another and, in particular, support the least among us.” He then said he believes “strongly” in the separation of church and state, that anyone in public office “needs to make it clear that they’re here to support people of any religion and no religion,” and that, “at the very least, we should be able to establish that God does not have a political party.” Although in previous venues, Buttigieg had mentioned his dismay with Vice President Mike Pence’s long-standing, well documented record of opposing equal rights for LGBT people, this time, he criticized President Trump for his “chest thumping and self-aggrandizing, not to mention abusive behavior….”

Cooper noted that Buttigieg had gotten into a “back-and-forth” recently over his criticism of Pence. (Pence’s wife tried to dismiss Buttigieg’s portrayal of Pence as anti-gay as a campaign gimmick “to get some notoriety.” A Pence spokesperson noted that, when Buttigieg came out publicly as gay, then Governor Pence said he held Buttigieg “in the highest personal regard.”)

Now, said Cooper, “the current ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, who is also gay, weighed in” on the row. Grenell, said Cooper, has been “saying you have been ‘pushing this hate hoax [about Pence] along the lines of Jussie Smollett for a very long time now, several weeks.’ How do you respond to that?” (Openly gay television actor Smollett garnered considerable negative media recently when he was accused of filing a false report of an anti-gay assault against him. The charges were later dropped.)

Buttigieg did not hesitate.

“I’m not a master fisherman,” said Buttigieg, “but I know bait when I see it, and I’m not gonna take it.”

The audience erupted in sustained applause and cheers. Cooper moved on, but the newcomer had masterfully dodged his first political molotov cocktail from a surrogate for President Trump, a Goliath of insults.

Monday night’s event with Buttigieg was the second nationally televised town hall forum on CNN with the openly gay candidate. The first such forum, in March in Austin, boosted Buttigieg from a virtual unknown on the national political stage to a top tier contender for the Democratic nomination for president. The latest national poll, released April 23, showed him in third place among Democratic contenders nationwide (as well as in early primary states), with a name recognition of 64 percent. (The poll of 1,992 registered voters by Morning Consult was conducted April 19-21, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus one percent.)

The April 22 forum seemed to position Buttigieg for continued success.

“CNN’s town hall Monday night in New Hampshire was the clearest sign yet that South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a candidate who’s still catching up to his own popularity,” said the lead in CNN’s coverage of the forum.

But while the audience of area college students gathered at St. Anselm campus in New Hampshire, clearly liked Buttigieg, the forum wasn’t a cakewalk.

Buttigieg also dodged a legitimate question raised by New England College student Trevor VanNiel, who asked, “How would you cooperate with countries that view homosexuality as a sin and a crime that is punishable by death?”

“Well, I think it’s wrong to harm or punish people because they are part of the LGBTQ community,” said Buttigieg. “I get that not every country is there. In some dramatically milder respects but very still bothersome ones, our own country is not there. I believe this is an example of why the world needs an America that is strong, that’s credible, and that people believe keeps its word because, frankly, our ability, and the ability of the next president and of the U.S. to lead on this issue, I mean to really try to guide countries toward doing the right thing, largely depends on whether we have any moral authority at all.”

Buttigieg said America’s moral authority today has “plummeted.”

“And whether it’s LGBTQ rights or, frankly, any kind of human rights or democracy promotion that we want to advance…it’s really important for the U.S. to be a credible messenger,” he said, before wandering into a discussion of “different models” of government around the world.

None of the other four Democratic candidates at the forum Monday night –Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Kamala Harris– were asked any LGBT-related questions. Fox News announced Tuesday that it has scheduled a town hall in Claremont, New Hampshire, with Buttigieg on May 19. The program will be broadcast live beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern.