Buttigieg praises Harris’s focus on 'people’s families' — slams Vance’s 'childless' attack

24 July 2024

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took aim at Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance, destroying his attack on “childless” Democrats, which he had described as the “future” of the Democratic Party.

In a wide-ranging CNN interview Tuesday night (videos below), Buttigieg criticized Vance’s “obvious interest in power,” highlighting his switch from being extremely anti-Trump to joining the convicted felon’s run for the White House. He also mocked Trump’s apparent attempt to withdraw from an ABC News debate now that Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ de-facto presidential nominee.

CNN host Kaitlan Collins played a 2021 clip in which now-Senator Vance had told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “It’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Collins noted that Buttigieg now has kids and Vice President Harris is a step-mother.

“The really sad thing is, he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Secretary Buttigieg responded, referring to his husband with whom he is now raising twins. “He couldn’t have known that but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”

“And it’s not about his kids, or my kids, or the vice president’s family,” Buttigieg continued. “It’s about your family, people’s families, whose well-being will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris, who is focused on expanding the prosperity, the freedom, the well-being of our families. And by the way, especially if you have kids and you’re worried about climate, choosing between a party that has a plan on climate that creates jobs, and a party that still calls it a hoax even as we went through the hottest day in world history. Or do you want your children to grow up in a country defined by a return to the chaos and recrimination and cruelty that was the hallmark of the Trump era?”

Buttigieg also called Donald Trump’s decision to add the Ohio Republican Senator to the ticket “regrettable,” while mocking Vance’s flip flop from anti-Trump to Trump running mate.

He told Collins, “the choice of JD Vance is a regrettable choice, because he’s somebody who was at his most convincing and effective when he talked about how unfit for office Donald Trump is, and he has not explained any reason other than, of course, his obvious interest in power.”

Buttigieg said Vance’s “whole identity is that he is connected to Appalachia, a place that is being hurt so profoundly by the opioid crisis. So the fact that he didn’t just refer to Donald Trump as an idiot, though he did, didn’t just say all kinds of things about how he was terrible, but compared Donald Trump to opioids – that is literally the darkest, most negative thing someone connected to Appalachia could possibly say about a politician. And that was in public, right? In private, he was comparing him to Hitler, reportedly. He has yet to explain why his opinion would be any different other than his own search for power.”

Collins, noting Trump has claimed he will debate Harris, but not in the previously-agreed ABC News setting, also asked Buttigieg if he thinks Trump is “scared” to debate Vice President Harris.

As she acknowledged Trump agreed to debate Harris, possibly more than once, Buttigieg interjected, saying: “only after backing out of the debate he already agreed to, though, right?”

“I think the interesting thing about this is, what changed,” Buttigieg asked, “from when he said he was ready to do an ABC debate and when he now says he’s not? ABC didn’t change. Donald Trump didn’t change. But there’s a new candidate and clearly he hesitates to debate her on the exact same terms that he thought to be okay.”

Asked why he thinks Trump is “scared” to debate Harris, Buttigieg replied, “I think she is going to be so effective.”

“And she’s going to lay bare his inability to talk about anything but himself and his past. I think what you’ll see is two things that I’m ready for, excited for Americans to see. Yes, the contrast, the way as she laid out very powerfully, she as a prosecutor who has defended people from people like Donald Trump, [she’s] gonna remind everybody about that record, but also a contrast in governing records.”

“She’s going to be I think, very effective in reminding Americans that on issue after issue, they already agree with us, they already agree with her and Democrats. Americans agree with Democrats and disagree with Donald Trump, on taxes and his agenda of tax cuts for the rich. They agree with Kamala Harris, Democrats, and disagree with Donald Trump on his removal of the right to choose in this country. And gun violence, marriage, you can go on down the list. I think she’s very well-positioned to remind Americans of that fact.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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