In an interview with Spectrum News, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — a former primary rival of Joe Biden’s in 2020-turned-ally and Cabinet official — called the Democratic president a “focused and disciplined leader” amid concerns from within his own party following his performance in last week’s presidential debate.
What You Need To Know
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called President Joe Bidena “focused and disciplined leader” amid concerns from within his own party following his performance in last week’s presidential debate
- Buttigieg, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 before endorsing his candidacy against then-President Donald Trump, hailed the results of his first term, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill he was able to get passed
- Concerns about Biden's age and fitness, which have persistently dogged him throughout his first term, have boiled over in the days following last week's presidential debate; officials across the board, including elected Democrats, members of Biden's administration and campaign and even the president himself, have admitted that his debate performance in Atlanta was less than stellar
- When asked aboutcalls from Republicansfor the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from power,Buttigieg dismissed them as "more crazy partisan politics"
When asked about his message to people who are worried about Biden’s age — he would be 86 at the end of a second term — and fitness to govern, Buttigieg hailed the results the incumbent Democrat has been able to achieve in his first term.
“The president, the boss that I work for, is a focused and disciplined leader, and youcan tell from the results that we've gotten,” Buttigieg told Spectrum News’ Taylor Popielarz in an exclusive interview in North Carolina. “No modern president has been able to deliver as many achievements as he did really in hisfirst two years alone, including, of course, this historic [$1.2T bipartisan] infrastructure package, butalso the legislation bringing manufacturing jobs back to places like where I grew up innorthern Indiana, the benefits for veterans, the reduction in the cost of insulin, youname it.”
"I think in any job, you want to be judged on the results that you deliver, and that's, I think, part of the message that we're bringing as we hit the road, pointing up these great projects," he added.
Buttigieg, a Rhodes Scholar, U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic primary before dropping out and endorsing his candidacy against then-President Donald Trump. He narrowly won the Iowa caucuses in 2020, becoming the first openly gay person to win a major contest in the presidential primary process.
After the 2020 election, Biden tapped Buttigieg to serve as his Secretary of Transportation, making him openly gay Cabinet secretary in the country’s history and the youngest person to hold the role. He is widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination— or 2024, if Biden chooses to step aside.
Concerns about Biden's age and fitness, which have persistently dogged him throughout his first term, have been widely discussed in the days following last week's presidential debate. Officials across the board, including elected Democrats, members of Biden's administration and campaign and even the president himself, have admitted that his debate performance in Atlanta was less than stellar. One elected Democrat, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, went as far as to urge Biden to step aside as the party's nominee on Tuesday, becoming the first to publicly do so.
"It was a bad night," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted at a briefing on Tuesday afternoon, where she laid out a busy slate for the president, including an exclusive interview with ABC News and a solo press conference at next week's NATO summit in Washington. "We’re going to turn the page, we’re going to get out there across the country, Americans are going to see him for themselves."
When asked about Biden's demeanor behind closed doors, Buttigieg said that "it's a lot like what America saw on the night of the State of the Union address," a speech which garnered the incumbent a lot of praise for his energy and willingness to joust with Republican hecklers.
"You've got a leader who's very focused, knows what he cares about, holds everybody who works for him, all of us, to a very high standard and is focused on getting things done, not the noise, the chaos, the divisiveness, but bringing people together," Buttigieg said.
When asked about calls from Republicansfor the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from power -- similar calls were issued for Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol -- Buttigieg dismissed them as "more crazy partisan politics."
"We have a job to do," Buttigieg said. "I'm doing my job, the president's doing his job, and the results are all around us."
