Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from Radical Nation: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's Dangerous Plan for America.
Currently 38 years old, Pete Buttigieg was the two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020. South Bend is a city of 100,000 people with a strong mayoral government, so “Mayor Pete” can claim some hands-on managerial experience. But the South Bend Public Transportation Corporation’s fleet of 66 buses carries a daily average of only 4,300 people, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation. It’s quite a leap from managing 66 buses to overseeing the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The various administrations of the DOT oversee aviation, railroads, highways, mass transit, shipping, pipelines, hazardous materials transport, seaways, public safety, and our national defense infrastructure.
Was Buttigieg the most qualified for the job because of his depth of knowledge and experience managing transportation systems? C’mon, man! Of course, he wasn’t. In fact, after Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses (and Biden finished fourth), the Biden campaign ran an ad on YouTube and Facebook attacking Mayor Pete for his inexperience. “What you’ve done matters,” the ad concluded with drop-the-mic finality. After Biden chose Buttigieg for the cabinet post, the ad was quietly scrubbed from the internet.
Biden and Buttigieg both admitted that Mayor Pete was chosen to check the LGBTQ box on the cabinet roster. Biden said, “Our cabinet doesn’t have just one first, or just two of these firsts, but eight precedent-busting appointments. And today a ninth—the first openly gay nominee to lead a cabinet department and one of the youngest cabinet members ever.” In response, Buttigieg thanked Biden “for honoring your commitment to diversity.”
Buttigieg should be insulted by, not grateful for, the appointment. His response should be, “Don’t talk about my sexual orientation. Don’t make me your token gay and young cabinet member. Put me in a job that matches my qualifications, and then tell the world how highly qualified I am.” Biden’s anti-Buttigieg ads were right: What you’ve done matters. Mayor Pete was clearly not the most qualified person to run the DOT—but at least he checks the LGBTQ and youth boxes.
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By the way, thirty-six Republican senators voted to confirm Pete Buttigieg, and a thirty-seventh, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, would have voted to confirm but was unable to attend the vote, according to the Congressional Record. So much for the old canard about homophobic Republicans.
Buttigieg has tried to use his position to promote green transportation, such as bicycling. On February 25, 2021, Politico reporter Michael Stratford tweeted a video of Buttigieg riding a Capital Bikeshare bicycle with the message, “Cabinet secretaries @bikeshare home from work, too.” On April 1, CNN reporter D. J. Judd tweeted a video of Buttigieg climbing aboard a bicycle next to a black government SUV, surrounded by several men. As Buttigieg rode off, the SUV followed him. Judd wrote, “Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg biked to the White House for today’s Cabinet Meeting, it would appear.”
Conservative news sites and tweeters spotted what Judd missed: Buttigieg had faked his bike ride. He had ridden aboard the SUV to a secluded point near the White House. There his bodyguards helped him remove the bike from the bumper rack. Then he pedaled the short distance to the White House, making a performative display of using green transportation when he had made most of the trip in a gas-guzzling SUV.
The left-leaning Snopes fact-checking site labeled conservative interpretations of that video as “FALSE.” But you can view the video yourself at Snopes—search for “Did Pete Buttigieg Stage a Bike Ride After Riding in SUV?” You’ll see Buttigieg’s bodyguards tightening the straps on the bike rack as Buttigieg climbs onto the bike. It’s obvious that they had just removed the bike from the rack moments before.” Buttigieg’s bike rides are a PR stunt, nothing more.
John Kerry, President Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, was secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 and a key backer of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, “the Iran nuclear deal”). After President Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in May 2018, Kerry held secret talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, discussing ways to reinstate the agreement. In media appearances in 2018, Kerry openly admit-ted meeting with Zarif “three or four times” since leaving office, indicating he had encouraged Iran to wait until Trump was out of office.73 It’s a felony under the Logan Act for a private citizen to undermine government policy through backdoor negotiations with foreign powers.
On climate issues, Kerry claims that the rules he inflicts on us don’t apply to him. He opposed a wind-power project on Nantucket Sound because it would spoil the view from his sea-side mansion. In 2019, he flew his private jet to Iceland to accept an award for environmental activism, explaining that a private jet was “the only choice for somebody like me, who is traveling the world to win this battle.” His Gulfstream GIV-SP spews an estimated 116 metric tons of carbon in a single year.75 Whatever Kerry “accomplishes” as Biden’s climate czar will almost certainly be a complete disaster—for which Kerry will claim victory.
President Biden named Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff under President Obama, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. McDonough has no medical background, has never served in the military, and has no experience working with veterans’ service organizations (VSOs). Jeremy Butler, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told the Washington Post, “He’ll have to go a long way to prove himself to a very skeptical population who would prefer someone with more direct veteran and VA experience.” An unnamed official of a veterans’ organization told the Post, “Is this just a crony pick, or an afterthought? He [McDonough] has zero affiliation with veterans. . . . [McDonough] is not a vet . . . [and] doesn’t understand the culture of the only cabinet-level agency with a built-in constituency that’s actually engaged and vocal.” Is Denis McDonough the most highly qualified person Biden could have picked for this critically important post?
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