According to Secretary of Transportation and vice presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the public has yet to appreciate the full extent of Kamala Harris’ wit and tenacity. He says she displays these qualities much more in private.
Buttigieg, 42, told The New York Times in a wide-ranging interview: “I think people know this, but she’s not just impressive, she’s smart and she’s funny.”
“I actually think it’s interesting, not just TV, but the Internet has picked up on the fact that she has a great sense of humor. And it’s also revealing that the GOP has tried to attack her for that, and it’s failed.”
And while he initially dodged a question about how the current vice president should distinguish himself from Biden, Buttigieg insisted that Harris “needs to explain how she contributed to the work of getting inflation in this country down to three percent.”
He added that the Democratic candidate should emphasize the “difference between her economic proposals and Donald Trump’s clearly inflationary proposals.”
Buttigieg, 42, spoke to The New York Times about his fellow Democrat, under whom he currently serves in the Biden administration, and is glad her sense of humor is finally being recognized by the public.
“I think people know this, but she’s not only impressive, she’s smart and funny,” he said, adding that she needs to show her report to America and make it clear what she’s been doing for the past four years.
“I would like to see her address the concerns of Americans,” he said.
Bernie Sanders issued a similar statement earlier this week, calling for Boston Globe: ‘[Harris] must have an agenda that responds to the crisis facing working families across the country.
“I think Democrats need to be very, very clear about what ideas they have, when there’s such tremendous income inequality and wealth inequality.”
In his final interview, Buttigieg recounted a time when he actually saw Harris “in action,” rather than the funny version of herself, when he had to debate her while playing the role of Mike Pence. He called the experience “a very strange psychological experience.”
“You hear so often, ‘Oh, this person is really funny and outrageous,’ but that doesn’t come across on TV,” he said. “I think she’s a very compelling leader.”
Buttigieg, however, still defended President Joe Biden despite his disastrous and concerning performance during the debate earlier in June, saying that Biden “has been very good at being president and I think he continues to be very good.”
The father of twins recalls a moment when he actually saw Harris “in action” instead of her normally funny self, when he had to debate her while playing the role of a fake Mike Pence — an experience he called “a very strange psychological thing.”
Harris took over Biden’s campaign against Trump after he withdrew from the race
When asked why he didn’t think the Democratic Party had made more of an effort to find new candidates — such as Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, who were among the first to be thrown into the ring after Biden left his campaign — Buttigieg said it was easiest to look at Harris.
“I think a lot of people looked at her, what she had to offer, the importance of bringing the party together quickly and decided that supporting her was the best way to do that,” he told The Times.
He also thinks Trump fever will die down. He called Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” and the former president’s call of Harris a “thug” a “bad look for Republicans.”
Buttigieg also thinks Trump fever will abate — calling Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” and the former president calling Harris a “thug” a “bad look on Republicans”
“The fact that they can’t think of anything else to do other than immediately look at race and gender not only says something about the ugliest undercurrents in the Republican Party today, it’s also just plain unimaginative. It says they can’t say how this is going to make people’s lives better.
‘In other words, they cannot imagine a politics that is not just about personalities.’
Meanwhile, Harris has surpassed Trump in a new national poll conducted two days after Biden endorsed her.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris ahead of Trump by 2 points in a head-to-head general election race, as she takes over the campaign in place of the ailing 81-year-old Biden.
Buttigieg also spoke to HBO’s Bill Maher last week about the attempted assassination of Trump and the role that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who has since resigned, played in it.
“I believe President Biden and his administration will do the right thing,” he said, before Cheatle stepped down as the nation called for her resignation.
In his interview with The Times, Buttigieg also commented on Harris’ campaign strategy of moving away from previous, straightforward Democratic attacks on Trump, namely that he is bad for democracy, and instead calling him “weird.”
Harris has surpassed Trump in a new national poll conducted two days after Biden endorsed her
Several polls conducted as President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid showed Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump in the 2024 race — but a poll released Tuesday finally showed the vice president surpassing the former president
“I think we do both,” he said. “We talk about the implications for democracy and note that he is clearly a strange person who is becoming increasingly strange, and you have to ask yourself, is that the kind of person you want running the country?”
As for whether or not Buttigieg will be on Harris’ vice presidential list — or whether he even wants to be — he remained mum.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk like that, knowing that the person who has to make the decision is the person who’s going to make it, and that’s her. Not me,” he said.