Biden names Buttigieg as transportation nominee
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden introduced his one-time Democratic primary rival Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary Wednesday, saying the 38-year-old can be “a new voice” in the fight against economic inequality, institutional racism and climate change.
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would be the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet position.
Biden hailed that milestone while saying, by the time he’s done filling out his new administration’s top jobs, it will have more women and people of color than ever, including “a Cabinet that is opening doors and breaking down barriers, and accessing the full brains and talent we have so much of.”
Biden said Buttigieg offers “a new voice with new ideas determined to move past old politics.”
“We need someone who knows how to work with state, local and federal agencies,” Biden said, noting that highways are in disrepair and that some bridges “are on the verge of collapse.”
Buttigieg mentioned his affinity for trains while acknowledging that he would be only the “second-biggest” Amtrak enthusiast in the administration, given that Biden rode the rails for years between Washington and Wilmington, Delaware, while serving in the Senate.
The South Bend chapter of Black Lives Matter denounced the nomination.
“We saw Black communities have their houses torn down by his administration,” BLM’S South Bend leader Jorden Giger said in a statement, referring to Buttigieg’s effort to tear down substandard housing. “We saw the machinery of his police turned against Black people.”