Buttigieg Says Democrats Can’t Maintain Status Quo

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned that Democrats cannot return to the previous political status quo if they hope to counter President Donald Trump or rebuild public trust in government.

In an NPR interview aired July 28, Buttigieg said his party has been “slow to understand the changes in how people get their information” and urged Democrats to stop trying to restore outdated institutions without reform.

“Right now, you’ve got an administration that is burning down so many of the most important institutions that we have in this country, which is wrong,” Buttigieg said. “It is also wrong to imagine that we should have just kept everything going along the way it was. And I think that my party needs to do a better job of addressing the fundamental problems that have led people to mistrust everything.”

Buttigieg, who moved from Indiana to Michigan after leaving the Cabinet when President Joe Biden’s term ended in January, said Democrats must be willing to challenge corporate power and abandon nostalgia for the pre-Trump era.

“But it’s also wrong to suppose that if Democrats come back to power, our project should be to just tape the pieces together just the way that they were,” he said. “We should be unsentimental about the things that don’t work. We should be fearless in defending the things that do work. And yes, we should be naming the forces, entities, people, often corporations, who stand between a lot of Americans and a better, freer life.”

He accused Trump of trying “to destroy companies, universities, and broadcasters who criticize his government.”

The White House rebutted the accusations in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

“President Trump is the greatest president in history and has delivered on his campaign promises in record time,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in an email. “In just six months, President Trump has made America the hottest country in the world—the border is secure, Joe Biden’s inflation crisis has been defeated, and hardworking Americans are keeping more of their paychecks thanks to the largest middle class tax cut in history.”

Buttigieg also addressed internal criticism within the Democratic Party, including recent calls by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) in an interview with The Guardian for the party to become “aggressively populist.” While not fully endorsing that strategy, Buttigieg agreed that Democrats need to shed old assumptions.

“I think it’s certainly true that we can’t be wedded to the old ways or the status quo,” he said. “It is wrong to burn down the Department of Education. But I actually think it’s also wrong to suppose that the Department of Education was just right in 2024. You could say the same thing about USAID.”

Asked about Biden’s age and how it affected his presidency, Buttigieg said he was always truthful.

“I told the truth, which is that he was old,” Buttigieg said. “You could see that he was old. And also, when it came to my ability to do my job and have my boss, my president, support me in that job, I always got whatever I needed from him, from the Oval Office.”

Buttigieg added he had moments where he thought Biden was “looking tired” or where he noticed that “he was aging,” but that “there was never a moment where I thought this decision, this policy, or this process is going worse or is wrong because of the fact that he’s old.”

He said that Democrats must do a better job connecting high-level ideals to everyday life if they want to reach voters. He cited growing mistrust of the government and frustration with incompetence.

Prior to being appointed to Biden’s cabinet, Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020. He is widely seen as a contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028 and recently surged past former Vice President Kamala Harris in a Democratic primary poll.

Buttigieg’s performance in that poll echoes his strong showing in the 2020 Democratic primaries, when he emerged as a top-tier candidate. He finished first in the Iowa caucuses and second in New Hampshire before suspending his campaign in early March 2020 and endorsing Joe Biden.