Pete Buttigieg Says Dems Have Become ‘Too Attached’ To ‘Failing’ Status Quo

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with NPR on Monday that the Democratic Party needs to move on from its “failing” status quo.

Buttigieg said in an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition” that he thinks Democrats have been “too attached to a status quo that has been failing us for a long time.” His comments come as some Democrats have been calling for new leadership in their party as they seek to win back voters in the 2026 midterm elections and 2028 presidential election.

“You’ve got an administration that is burning down so many of the most important institutions that we have in this country, which is wrong,” Buttigieg said in the interview with NPR. “It is also wrong to imagine that we should have just kept everything going along the way it was.”

Buttigieg also said that Democrats need to be more “unsentimental” about “the things that don’t work,” and “fearless about the things that do work.” The former Transportation Secretary added that there is currently a perception that Democrats “became so focused on identity” in the 2024 election cycle that the party “no longer had a message that could actually speak to people across the board.”

In May, Buttigieg claimed that “most people would agree” that former President Joe Biden’s