Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday former President Trump and Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) are selling “darkness” this election, while predicting the public would not buy it.
“Darkness is what they are selling. The thing is, I just don’t believe that America today is in the market for darkness,” Buttigieg said.
He added that the politics of Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) are the “kind of politics [that it] just feels better to be part of.”
“There is joy in it, as well as power,” he said.
Buttigieg, a rival to Harris during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, also quipped about his appearances on Fox News.
“Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself say. I’m Pete Buttigieg and you might recognize me from Fox News,” he said. “I believe in going … anywhere in service of a good cause and friends, we gather in a very good cause — electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next president and vice president of the United States.”
The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., also hit Vance over his previous comments about Americans with children having more stake in the future than Americans who don’t.
Buttigieg, a military veteran, said when he was deployed to Afghanistan he didn’t have kids but “our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical.”
Buttigieg also spoke about his experience as a father and said the existence of his family is something that was impossible as recently as 25 years ago.
Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, have 3-year-old twins.
“All of it compels us to demand more of our politics than reruns of some TV wrestling death march,” he said.