Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is arguably the most liberal of any Democrat to hold that position.
He’s not liberal enough, however, for the radical leftist environmentalists of Climate Defiance, a group aimed at using “mass-turnout, peaceful direct action to force our politicians to take action at the scope and speed necessary to avert the worst impacts of” climate change, according to its website.
Members of that group celebrated just such activity on Twitter this week after what they apparently considered a victory at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, where the former mayor of the fourth-largest city in Indiana had been participating in a discussion of “how President [Joe] Biden is delivering for Maryland,” according to a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Highly edited video posted to X by the group, unverified independently by The Western Journal but apparently authentic, showed members of the group ascending to the stage occupied by Buttigieg and making claims, without evidence, of approving various projects that would harm the environment.
Displaying a haunting lack of understanding of the concept of false dichotomy, protesters chanted, “Which side are you on, Pete” and “End fossil fuels, Pete.”
Breaking: we just chased Secretary Pete Buttigieg off the stage at the Meyerhoff Symphony.
Petro Pete is a coward. As we write he is ramming down our throats the Sea Port and GulfLink oil terminals – each worse than Keystone.
We must resist him with all we’ve got. And we will. pic.twitter.com/aVKeCre5eH
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 10, 2023
Today we took over a keynote address by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Humiliated, he fled.
Craven and corrupted, Petro Pete is destroying entire communities to enrich his fossil fuel cronies.
So we did something he will never forget. And we did not apologize. ? pic.twitter.com/TfHYqorfQc
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 11, 2023
Please. We confronted you there and you fled *your own* keynote to avoid our questions about fossil fuels. You bolted like a bunny. You escaped through the loading dock because you were ashamed to show face. Your cowardice was exposed to 100k+ people. You fool no one, Petro Pete. https://t.co/sF6rLK6tDV
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 11, 2023
Unsurprisingly, the group used the event to attempt to enrich itself, because there’s nothing a leftist likes more than spending someone else’s money.
We are explicitly committed to ending the careers and decimating the reputations of those who disagree with us.
We need funds to pull this off. Chip in here. If you are not in a position to donate, share widely. https://t.co/XsyxfrYcRN
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 11, 2023
“We are explicitly committed to ending the careers and decimating the reputations of those who disagree with us,” the group wrote on X.
In which case, this event should hardly be trumpeted as a win for Climate Defiance. Buttigieg serves at the pleasure of the president, and it’s unlikely that Biden was moved by their display.
For that matter, its unlikely that anyone was — the kind of folks who show up to see Buttigieg speak in person probably aren’t going to be swayed by a bunch of unemployed chanters in ill-fitting white T-shirts.
And the more radical young Democrats already hate the guy, and have for years, as Politico wrote in 2020.
As for conservatives, well, I don’t think many are going to buy the electric-vehicle hawking Buttigieg as “Petro Pete.”
But if Climate Defiance could somehow convince the right that that’s who the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor actually is, they’d probably like him better for it.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
