Cedar Rapids, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, appeared to acknowledge Tuesday that he believed Biden should not have run for a second White House term.
When asked by reporters if the Democratic party would have been better off without Biden as the nominee, Buttigieg responded, “Maybe, you know, right now, with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that is the case.”
Buttigieg, who won the 2020 Democratic Iowa caucus, made the remarks following a town hall in the Hawkeye state hosted by a progressive veterans PAC. Buttigieg served as Biden’s transportation secretary from 2021 until he left office in January.
Buttigieg addressed whether he saw signs that Biden was experiencing any kind of cognitive decline. Speculation about Biden’s situation ramped up following his poor debate performance against President Trump in June, and the ensuing fallout ultimately led to Biden dropping out of the race.
“Every time I needed something from him from the West Wing I got it,” Buttigieg said of Biden. “And the time I worked closest with him in his last year was around the Baltimore bridge collapse. And I want to tell you is that the same president the world saw addressing that, was the president that I was involved with.”
This visit to Iowa comes amid a flurry of speculation that Buttigieg is considering a second presidential run in 2028. Buttigieg recently passed on a 2026 run for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, and has made a number of media appearances in recent weeks.
“Anyone can come to Iowa just before an election’s coming up,” Buttigieg joked with the audience shortly after taking the stage at the VoteVets event. “I wanted to make sure I had a chance to talk with the people I got to know five or six years ago, and people I’m seeing for the very first time.”
Buttigieg played coy on whether he was assessing a potential presidential run, telling reporters that, “Right now, I’m not running for anything. Part of what’s exciting about an opportunity like this is to be campaigning for values and for ideas rather than a specific elected office.”
When asked by an audience member what can be done to combat some of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Buttigieg encouraged them not to “back down.”
“There’s this sense of inevitability, invincibility, right, that the president’s trying to create,” he said. “But it’s not true. Don’t back down. They’ll back down when he screws up badly enough, not as often as I’d like, but they change their mind all the time. They changed their mind on tariffs.”
Buttigieg’s remarks echoed similar comments he’s made in media appearances in recent weeks, especially in speaking about the future of the Democratic party, which he has encouraged to “meet people where they are.”
Buttigieg said it is “politically and substantively wrong” for the party to suggest returning to a status quo when Democrats were last in power.
“I am not here to say we gotta make things back the way they were in 2023,” Buttigieg said. “The hard truth is, if our government, our politics, our society and our economy were working, we wouldn’t be here. Pro-authoritarian populist movements, they don’t just come out of nowhere.”
Buttigieg refused to weigh in on whether Iowa should be the Democrat’s first primary contest in 2028. In 2023, the Democratic National Committee, with the support of Biden, controversially changed the calendar to make South Carolina the first state in Democratic primary schedule. Prior to that, the Iowa caucuses had led off the process since 1972.
“People like me are makers, not takers, on the rules like that,” Buttigieg said. “What I will say is Iowa showed me what can happen through a process where you have to be in backyards, doing a few town halls a day. It made it possible for me to emerge as a candidate, and it certainly made me better, not just as a candidate but as a public servant.”
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