Late-night host Jon Stewart is questioning if President Joe Biden is upset by the apparent surge in enthusiasm in his party for Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sat down for an interview with Stewart Monday night and said he found out the news that Biden was stepping aside “the way everybody did.”
“I was actually on a plane, fittingly enough, taxiing in, and Chasten was sitting next to me and checking Twitter and saw the post, and so we found out the same way everybody else did. And yeah, ever since, I think a lot of us, you know, our heads are spinning. So much has changed. But part of what’s changed is this incredible energy that we have now,” he noted.
Buttigieg said, “Obviously, you know, she represents a lot of continuity with the values of the Biden-Harris campaign and the Biden-Harris administration, but also a different messenger, a different style, a different approach, and people are clearly really fired up and excited about it. I know I am.”
Stewart responded, “This is such a strange question, and I don’t know if you’ve spoken to him or not, but like, do you think President Biden sees that and is like, ‘Oh, fine.’?”
He asked, “Or is he– I would imagine it would hurt your feelings? If that were me, it would hurt my feelings.”
“I don’t know,” Buttigieg responded.
He went on:
“I think part of what he achieved with what’s a really extraordinary thing– I think even now we might be underselling how world-historically rare it is to be literally the most powerful person in the world, to lay power aside, right? Just because it’s the right thing to do. But in doing so, I also think he’s consolidated his own standing as one of America’s great presidents, and I also think he’s very conscious that that means sprinting through the tape and continuing to deliver for the next six months.”
However, Stewart asked, “What of the narrative about like, ‘They bullied him! He was bullied!’ Is that even– Can you do that to a president? Can you be like, ‘Get out!’ and then the president would be like, ‘Stop yelling at me!’?”
“No! I mean, that’s the thing, right? It was his call and he made that call,” Buttigieg responded. “And people may second guess the manner of it or the timing of it, but at the end of the day, it was his choice, he made that choice, and it must have been an extraordinarily difficult choice, but also the right choice.”
The exchange comes over a week after Biden announced he would end his re-election bid, and after Harris appeared to lock down enough delegates to become the party’s new presidential nominee.
Polls have found Democrats are much more enthusiastic about voting now that Harris is the nominee.
