CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA – Pete Buttigieg, who served as Transportation secretary for four years in then-President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, says that his former boss’ decision to seek re-election in 2024 “maybe” hurt the Democrats.
Additionally, Buttigieg – whose trip to Iowa this week sparked further speculation that he is seriously considering a 2028 White House run – when asked if the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden had ruled out running for a second term as president, acknowledged that “with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that’s the case.”
Buttigieg’s comments – as he took questions from reporters after holding a large town hall with veterans and military families in this eastern Iowa city on Tuesday night – came amid excerpts from a new book titled, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which offer claims of a White House cover-up of the then-president’s alleged cognitive decline.
Biden dropped out of the White House race last July, one month after a disastrous debate performance with now-President Donald Trump that sparked a chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for the then-81-year-old president to end his re-election bid. He was replaced at the top of the ticket by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who ended up losing November’s presidential election to Trump.
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When asked whether Biden experienced cognitive decline, Buttigieg told reporters that “every time I needed something from him from the West Wing, I got it.”
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“The time I worked closest with him in his final year was around the Baltimore bridge collapse. And what I can tell you is that the same president the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good job, do right by Baltimore. And that was characteristic of my experience with him,” he added.
Buttigieg won the 2020 Iowa presidential caucuses and came in a close second in the New Hampshire presidential primary before Biden surged to claim the party’s nomination and later the White House.
While Iowa’s caucuses for half a century kicked off both major political parties’ presidential nominating calendars, the Democratic National Committee demoted the Hawkeye State on their 2024 schedule, and it is unclear if Iowa will regain its early state status in the 2028 calendar.
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However, Buttigieg’s visit, along with his announcement in March that he would pass on a 2026 run for a Democrat-controlled open Senate seat in battleground Michigan, his adopted home state, are seen as signals of his interest in a potential 2028 national run.
Buttigieg told a Substack author in a live interview hours before the town hall that when it comes to 2028, he would consider “what I bring to the table.”
However, when asked by Fox News if the trip to Iowa – where he also gathered with staffers from his 2020 campaign and was followed around by a videographer from his political group Win the Era – was the beginning of an assessment period, Buttigieg said “right now, I’m not running for anything and part of what’s exciting and compelling about an opportunity like this is to be campaigning for values and for ideas rather than a specific electoral campaign. So that’s what I’m about.”
When told about audience members who said they supported him in 2020 and would be interested in backing him again if he runs in 2028, Buttigieg said, “of course, it means a lot to hear that people who supported me then continue to believe in what I have to say.”
The Cedar Rapids event was hosted by VoteVets, a progressive group that represents veterans and military families in the political process. The group told Fox News that 1,800 people attended the event.
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