Pete Buttigieg was seemingly plucked out of obscurity by the Democrat establishment to become a rising star.
But some on the left can’t stand Mayor Pete.
And he just made a crash landing when his bungling left Americans stranded for the holidays.
Before Democrats put Sleepy Joe in the most powerful office in the world, they seriously considered electing the completely unqualified Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Ultimately, Pete Buttigieg—who is young enough to take another shot at the presidency later—ended up getting a sweet position as US Secretary of Transportation as payback for helping get Joe Biden elected in 2020.
As a so-called “moderate” Buttigieg opened up a path for Biden to win the Democrat nomination when he suddenly dropped out of the race in 2020.
That earned him the ire—and future snark—of Bernie Sanders’ campaign since it suddenly destroyed the Vermont Socialist’s shot at getting into the Oval Office.
Joe Biden rewarded “Mayor Pete” for pulling out by tapping him as his Transportation Secretary.
But Buttigieg’s tenure as the head of the federal Department of Transportation has been marked by an almost incomprehensible level of incompetence.
The highlights of his work as Biden’s Transportation Secretary has included going on “paternity” leave for some 8 weeks during the biggest supply chain crisis of this century.
And it’s not like he could claim he was helping his wife with parental duties as she recovered from giving birth, because he’s married to a dude.
When it came to the recent nightmare of commercial airline delays over the holidays, Buttigieg was at least in the office.
But he did exactly nothing to deal with the problem.
Now Sanders and his loyal followers are taking their revenge on Mayor Pete.
While Southwest Airlines canceled all kinds of flights, former Sanders surrogate Nina Turner pointed out exactly how useless Buttigieg is as Transportation Secretary.
“What’s happening with the railroads, airlines & the supply chain is a result of a small city mayor being made the Secretary of Transportation as a means to pad his resume for President,” Turner tweeted. “Secretary Buttigeig is a prime example of failing up.”
What’s happening with the railroads, airlines & the supply chain is a result of a small city mayor being made the Secretary of Transportation as a means to pad his resume for President.
Secretary Buttigeig is a prime example of failing up.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) December 28, 2022
That’s exactly what happened.
Turner went on to share a link to an article from The Lever along with her jabs.
The publication reported that “[b]efore the debacle, attorneys general from both parties were sounding alarms about regulators’ lax oversight of the airline industry, imploring them and congressional lawmakers to crack down. The warnings came just before Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on national television insisting travel would improve by the holidays, and before Southwest executives—flush with cash from a government bailout—announced new dividend payouts to shareholders, while paying themselves millions of dollars.”
Sanders also took a shot at Buttigieg, rightly calling out the taxpayer funded bailout Southwest received.
“Southwest’s flight delays & cancellations are beyond unacceptable,” he tweeted. “This is a company that got a $7 billion taxpayer bailout & will be handing out $428 million in dividends to their wealthy shareholders. [U.S. Department of Transportation] must hold Southwest’s CEO accountable for his greed and incompetence.”
Southwest's flight delays & cancellations are beyond unacceptable. This is a company that got a $7 billion taxpayer bailout & will be handing out $428 million in dividends to their wealthy shareholders. @USDOT must hold Southwest's CEO accountable for his greed and incompetence.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 29, 2022
Sanders’s take almost sounded conservative.
Buttigieg brought the full ire of the hard Left’s “progressive” wing onto himself—and he’s likely to pay the price in the future.
His complete inability to handle functioning as Transportation Secretary should have been expected since this preparation for the job included using a few airports in the past and deciding that he has a fondness for them.
And now that he’s years into failing as Transportation Secretary it looks like this résumé building effort may well backfire on him.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
