Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to a toxic chemical spill after a train derailment has put the former small-town mayor into the harsh spotlight once reserved for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Buttigieg is seen as a top Democratic prospect, swiping a top Harris backer in her home state of California during the 2020 race who began supporting the former two-time South Bend mayor as well.
But the Cabinet secretary’s visit to East Palestine, Ohio, more than three weeks after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed, forcing an evacuation, has left him scrambling to fight off the perception that he is holding the crisis at arm’s length.
In a video viewed 4 million times, Buttigieg waved off a reporter asking him about his response to the spill by stating that he was “taking some personal time.”
“The most important job of anyone in the administration is to look out for the big boss, at whose pleasure they serve. Sometimes that entails ‘feel good’ assignments like ribbon cuttings and handing out giant checks in swing states, but most of the time it means taking flak to protect [President Joe Biden],” said a top Democratic campaign strategist. “You have to put your personal ambitions aside, bite the proverbial bullet, and do the job you signed up for.”
This person added, “Check your ego, forget about 2024 or 2028, and do the damn job.”
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In a Friday letter, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) urged Buttigieg to increase transparency over the Department of Transportation’s rail safety systems and inspections.
“People deserve answers,” Manchin wrote.
The senator’s call for accountability highlights how pressure on Buttigieg has grown to include members of his own party.
A deft communicator whose performance in the 2020 Democratic primaries helped vault him to national attention, Buttigieg has been tipped as a possible successor to Biden, positioning him as a possible rival to Harris, the president’s second in command.
Poised to hand out billions of dollars in federal funding, Buttigieg earned plaudits after Democrats passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. The transportation secretary hit the campaign trail and handed out millions in federal dollars to early state leaders for infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile, Harris allies griped to the press about the hand she’d been dealt.
Now the tide for Harris may be turning.
“Last week was a pretty good week for the vice president,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon, citing Harris’s appearance at the Munich Security Conference, where she accused Russia of “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine in a preview of Biden’s remarks days later after a surprise visit to Kyiv.
And after a bruising week, Buttigieg boosters are on defense.
“Buttigieg has taken a lot of bullets for the president on this,” a senior Democrat told Politico as he prepared to visit East Palestine under a swell of pressure.
The criticism has piled up in recent months, with Buttigieg earning flak for his handling of a series of transportation-related crises.
Last year, Buttigieg quietly went on paid paternity leave for months as a supply chain crisis led to bottlenecks and price hikes. While Buttigieg claimed he was “available 24/7,” emails obtained by the watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust and shared with the Washington Examiner last month showed that he dodged a meeting request from a top Republican senator due to his leave status.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had sought to discuss a $1.2 billion infrastructure project, a bridge that connects Iowa to Illinois, according to the records.
In December, the Washington Free Beacon revealed how Buttigieg was vacationing in Europe as high-stakes negotiations over rail union contracts threatened a strike with devastating economic consequences.
Buttigieg was in Michigan, an electoral battleground, attending the Detroit Auto Show and an awards dinner as then-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said his team spent “20 consecutive hours” in tense negotiations to avert a freight-rail strike.
As the Cabinet secretary overseeing the Biden administration’s transportation policy, there are few places for Buttigieg to turn when a crisis erupts.
“In a Cabinet job, you have a specific responsibility, and if that something happens on your watch that is bad, you pay a price for it,” said Bannon, the Democratic strategist. “When you’re vice president, you have the whole world in front of you.”
Assurances that Biden will seek reelection in 2024 with Harris at his side have done little to silence speculation among Democrats over his potential successor.
Waves of staff defections, testing media appearances, and public relations mishaps have led prominent Democrats to question Harris’s political acumen. Efforts by Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, to silence critics and box out the vice president’s potential future rivals have not fared well, garnering “eye rolling” inside the White House.
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Buttigieg remains well placed to overcome the latest round of turmoil, some say.
“Political attacks are like doorknobs. Everybody gets a turn,” said Gil Duran, a veteran Democratic operative-turned-columnist and onetime aide to Harris. “Some on the Democratic spectrum fear Buttigieg as a future presidential candidate and want any excuse to tear him down.”
Duran added, “Buttigieg is smart enough to know this comes with the territory,” crediting the transportation secretary as “one of the party’s best communicators.”
