Sunday shows – Buttigieg warns supply chain issues could stretch to next year

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Sunday that supply chain woes plaguing the global distribution of goods could last into 2022.

Buttigieg also said he would not apologize to Tucker Carlson after the Fox News host criticized him for taking time from running the Transportation Department to care for two newly-adopted children.

Meanwhile, chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci took to the Sunday political shows to speak of the importance of people being fully vaccinated in order to safely celebrate the holidays with family and that Americans who remain unvaccinated put the country at risk of having a fifth wave of COVID-19 during the winter months. He also addressed an order by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that banned vaccine mandates in his state, calling the move “unfortunate.”

Read more of The Hill’s coverage below.

Buttigieg says supply chain troubles could last into next year By JOSEPH CHOI     Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday said supply chain issues could continue into next year as many companies continue to struggle with disruptions. “Well, certainly, a lot of the challenges that we have been experiencing this year will continue into next year,” Buttigieg said. “But there are both short-term and long-term steps that we can take to do something about it. Look, part of what’s happening isn’t just the supply side. It’s the demand side. Demand is off the charts. Retail sales are through the roof.” Read the full story here

Buttigieg: ‘I’m not going to apologize to Tucker Carlson’ BY JOSEPH CHOI   Pete Buttigieg says he’s “not going to apologize to Tucker Carlson” for going on paternity leave from the Transportation Department to care for his adopted two children.  Read the full story here

Fauci says Americans can enjoy holidays with family if fully vaccinated BY CAROLINE VAKIL   Fauci explained that when the level of COVID-19 transmission is down, fueled by the vaccines, he believed “there’s no reason at all” why families could not gather together as they had previously done during the pandemic. Read the full story here

Paid family leave is ‘not a vacation,’ Buttigieg says BY CAROLINE VAKIL   Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who welcomed the birth of adopted twins last month, said on Sunday that paid family leave is “not a vacation.” Read the full story here

Fauci calls Abbott’s ban on vaccine mandates ‘unfortunate’ BY MONIQUE BEALS    White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning vaccine mandates “unfortunate” in a Sunday interview, saying mandates would help end the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Read the full story here

Kinzinger defends not supporting voting rights act: ‘Democrats have to quit playing politics’ BY JOSEPH CHOI    “Look, you can call a bill the Voting Rights Act, and then left-wing Twitter goes nuts about this by the way, and they can say you voted against voting rights without even look into the details,” the Illinois Republican said. Read the full story here

Fauci says unvaccinated create danger of fifth COVID-19 wave BY CAROLINE VAKIL   President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that unvaccinated Americans could pose a threat to the country’s progress on the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially incurring a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections. Read the full story here

GOP governor: Re-litigating 2020 ‘recipe for disaster’ in midterms BY CAROLINE VAKIL   Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said on Sunday that former President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to challenge the results of last year’s presidential elction could be a disaster for Republican candidates in next years midterms. Read the full story here

Fauci doesn’t think politics got in way of FDA booster approvals BY MONIQUE BEALS   “I’m not so sure the politics got ahead of it,” Fauci said on Fox News Sunday in response to a direct question from host Chris Wallace. Read the full story here