Buttigieg didn’t do so great under Biden’s administration. Nothing has changed.
Because Pete Buttigieg was asked one question that left him squirming.
Former Transportation Secretary and potential 2028 candidate Pete Buttigieg drew sharp criticism from a former RNC chairman Friday after he sidestepped repeated opportunities to disavow the rise of socialism inside the Democratic Party, instead coining a new label for himself: a “Buttigieg Democrat.”
Buttigieg Refuses to Directly Confront DSA Agenda
Speaking on “America Reports,” Buttigieg declined to directly address questions about Democratic Socialists of America policies, such as abolishing the Senate and ending deportations, instead pivoting to criticize President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and economic record.
“Look, there’s always going to be some people in my party who go too far for me, people I disagree with. If you pick the five or 10 or 15 furthest-left people in our party, they’re going to, by definition, disagree with a lot of others. But there’s so much that we do, in fact, agree on,” Buttigieg said.
“I think one of the reasons why you see people who run on a promise of shaking it up, whether it’s a DSA candidate on the left or whether it’s someone like Donald Trump, is because people can tell that the system we have is not just showing its age — it’s letting us down,” he added.
When pressed on where he falls on the Democratic spectrum, Buttigieg avoided a direct label altogether.
“I’m a Pete Buttigieg Democrat. I think I’m a common-sense Democrat, but of course everybody thinks that their ideas are common sense to them,” he said.
Former RNC Chair Says Buttigieg Ducked the Real Question
Fox News political analyst Reince Priebus, who served as RNC chairman and Trump White House chief of staff, argued Buttigieg was refusing to confront the socialist wing of his own party, calling the interview an example of mainstream Democrats aligning themselves with “people that are far outside the mainstream.”
“The opponent, the Democrats from where Pete Buttigieg is at, is aligning itself with people that are far outside the mainstream. They’re on the wrong side of normal, and he didn’t really address that when he was pressed,” Priebus said. “And that’s the big question for him.”
Priebus’ warning comes after a wave of self-described democratic socialists notched major primary victories in recent months, including in New York and Colorado. Melat Kiros, a DSA-backed newcomer, pulled off an upset over longtime Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver’s heavily Democratic district, while a slate of far-left candidates backed by New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, won primary elections in June, including newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier’s defeat of Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Brad Lander’s ouster of Rep. Dan Goldman.
Buttigieg Sits Atop 2028 Polling Alongside AOC, Insists He’s Not Running
A University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll published this week places Buttigieg neck-and-neck with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in a potential 2028 Democratic primary match-up. Ocasio-Cortez, when asked earlier this month about DSA proposals like abolishing the Senate, called it a “constitutional question” and noted, “we’ve all got our complaints.”
Despite the speculation, Buttigieg insisted Friday he was not laying groundwork for a White House run.
“I’m not running for anything,” he said. “I’m helping people who are because this is a very important election where people are seeing that their everyday lives — from the price of gas to healthcare, is on the line — and a lot of people who generally prefer a Republican president still want to see some kind of balance, some kind of check, some kind of restraint, and are considering maybe for the first time in a long time, voting for a Democrat for Congress.”
