Pete Buttigieg is attempting to flip the script and claim that American voters are now shifting their concerns about fitness for office to Donald Trump after 81-year-old Joe Biden dropped out.
Criticism of President Biden’s Transportation Secretary emerged after his comments Sunday morning from defenders who said they are not concerned about the 78-year-old former president’s age or mental acuity.
Buttigieg said that now that Biden has made the “selfless” decision to end his candidacy, voters are faced with the “reality” of Trump’s mental acuity.
“No, we are not and have never been concerned about his age, we don’t care at all,” wrote one pro-MAGA user on X. “Look how Harris is so much younger than him and yet she’s just as clueless and incompetent as Biden.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said voters are now concerned about the suitability of Donald Trump, 78, for office versus Vice President Kamala Harris, 59.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday after weeks of pressure from Democrats to end his campaign following a very public mental decline that culminated in a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last month.
“The president made an extraordinary, historic and selfless decision to withdraw from the nomination process and focus 100 percent on the presidency,” Buttigieg told Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream.
“I think it was the right decision,” he continued. “I know he will want to move quickly as far as the work of the presidency is concerned. In the meantime, we have a new candidate.”
Buttigieg, who is rumored to be a vice presidential candidate, continued to support Vice President Kamala Harris and her control of the Biden campaign.
Harris, 59, is the likely new Democratic nominee in November.
“I’m pretty sure voters are concerned about President Trump’s age and mental acuity compared to Kamala Harris, who represents a younger generation,” Buttigieg said. “And how could anyone not see what he’s saying, the ramblings on the campaign trail, and not be a little bit concerned?”
“Americans are worried about him in many ways and he will no longer run against President Biden,” he continued.
But MAGA fans have come to Trump’s defense, saying they are not worried about his suitability for office or his chances against a younger candidate.
Buttigieg says Trump “desperately wants” to continue running against the incumbent president.
Bream pressed Buttigieg on whether Harris knew the extent of Biden’s mental and physical decline as a new poll found a large share of Americans believe the vice president was involved in a “cover-up.”
“We all know how he’s doing,” he admitted. “Our country has seen our president lead and yes, we’ve also seen the fact that he’s 10 years older than he was years ago.”
“But unlike Republicans, who in the Trump cult of personality will look at Donald Trump and say he’s perfectly fine even though he seemed unable to tell the difference between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, even though he rambles on about electrocuting sharks and Hannibal Lecter, even though he’s clearly older and stranger than when America first met him, they say he’s strong as an ox, that he leaps tall buildings in a single bound,” Buttigieg said.
He added: “We don’t have that kind of distorted reality on our side.”
