Pete Buttigieg To Mo News: Democrats Get An ‘Incomplete’ As GOP Unites Around Trump
Former Transportation Secretary and potential 2028 presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg says he is concerned about the state of the U.S. democracy.
In an interview Wednesday with Mo News, Buttigieg warned that American democracy is “north of a five” on a 10-point worry scale (something we talk about on the Mo News Premium account) — where 10 equals authoritarianism. “I think that both parties should examine the chances of their survival,” he said.
Buttigieg pointed to existing issues in US democracy pre-Trump, including the lack of recent amendments to the Constitution and the Electoral College, which allows presidents to potentially win the presidency even if they didn’t win the most actual votes. And then Trump’s recent attacks on courts, media, law firms, and universities.
Republican George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 even though Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote. The same happened in 2016, when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote — although Trump did win the popular vote in the most recent election.
His comments come as the Democratic Party struggles to maintain a united message against Trump. Leaders like Sen. Elissa Slotkin (MI) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (CA) are pushing for a more moderate, pragmatic approach, while progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, have galvanized support around the issue of affordability.
Buttigieg aligns more with the former camp. As he considers a potential 2028 presidential run (more on that in a bit), he will need to contend with the GOP’s unified messaging; the party remains firmly behind Trump, who is polling above 80% approval among Republicans.
“IF” DEMS WIN AGAIN
Buttigieg didn’t mince words about the Democratic party’s current standing: He gives them an “incomplete” grade ahead of midterm elections.
When asked about Democrats’ chances of regaining power, he said, “We're past the point of believing that there's some pendulum that comes back and forth or some cycle that one party's up or one party's down.”
It comes as Republicans move to maintain their House majority with redistricting efforts in Texas and Ohio — if successful, it could help them keep control of the House in the midterm elections and beyond.
What Democrats are failing at: Messaging, says Buttigieg. “If and when Democrats come back to power, the project can’t be to go back and tape together the shards of everything that Trump [has broken],” he said. He added that Democrats cannot simply act as defenders of a failing status quo while MAGA Republicans position themselves as disruptors.
ON BIDEN AND PETE’S RECORD
Looking back at the Biden administration, which positioned itself as an antidote to Trump, Buttigieg noted mistakes not doing more to crack down on immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and waiting too long to reopen schools during the COVID pandemic. His comments mark a departure from what then-Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said when asked if she would have done anything differently from Biden. She said on The View: “not a thing.”
Buttigieg, however, defended his work at the Department of Transportation, emphasizing that he was the “toughest airline regulator to have that job” in recent history. He highlighted his efforts to boost the number of air traffic controllers after decades of decline.
His comments come as massive delays at Newark Airport in May — caused by an aging system and a shortage of controllers — have become a major issue for his successor, Sean Duffy, whom Buttigieg says is not doing a good job.
CRITICISM OF TRUMP
Buttigieg highlighted Biden-era policies designed to help consumers, like the DoT’s wheelchair protections rule and the FTC’s “click-to-cancel” regulation (which has origins from Trump’s first term), that the Trump administration is not enforcing or pushing. Instead, Buttigieg argues that Trump prioritizes the wealthy, and his approach to cutting bureaucratic bloat goes beyond even private-sector logic.
The administration, he argues, is “always siding with the wealthiest and with corporations against people — in the big blockbuster stuff, like the bill to cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to the wealthy.”
And for the work in cutting federal bloat, he says, “They didn’t check which jobs were more important and which ones were less important. They just found the categories that had the least legal protections and got rid of them all… No business would do it that way.”
He contrasted this with his own experience in government: “Yes, we need more efficient government. No, you don't just come in with a sledgehammer.”
2028 AMBITIONS?
On a potential 2028 presidential run, Buttigieg said he hasn’t made any decisions. We asked him whether the U.S. is ready for an LGBTQ president. Buttigieg said, “I think the best way to think about that is not to — because there’s only one way to actually find out.” Buttigieg married his husband, Chasten, in 2018 and adopted their twins in 2021.
Betting markets already place him among the top Democratic contenders, behind Newsom and AOC.
If he runs, one key issue Buttigieg is expected to focus on is AI, which he says will be a major challenge in the 2028 race and likely the defining issue of the next decade.
He warned that Americans are underreacting to its threats, pointing to the concentration of wealth among an elite few and the potential for massive workforce shrinkage.
He recently wrote about the issue in his Substack newsletter.
Catch our full conversation with Pete Buttigieg on the Mo News podcast — available first to the Mo News Premium community on Thursday. Join today!