Pete Buttigieg Defends His Reasons for Going on Fox News — but Understands Why More Democrats Don't
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended his reasons for continuing to appear on Fox News, but added that he understands why many of his Democratic peers choose not to.
'There's a lot of reasons to hesitate, right? If you're going into a place that you know is not ideologically friendly or not aligned with you, there's reasons to think twice about it and I think a lot of people in my party do,' Buttigieg said during a an interview on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett's podcast 'Smartless.' In the Monday episode, the trio praised the politician for his intelligence, wit and debating skills. Bateman added that he loved the fact that he makes appearances on conservative news channel Fox, but questioned why other Dems don't.
'My take on it is you can't blame somebody for not embracing your message if they've literally never heard it,' Buttigieg explained. 'And a lot of people will never hear what we have to say if we're only talking to people who are friendly to us.'
Throughout the years, Buttigieg has made headlines by breaking down Democratic talking points on the conservative-leaning Fox News on series like 'Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace' and 'Special Report With Bret Baier.' He's also opened up his schedule to podcast spots, like his visit to Andrew Schulz's series 'Flagrant.' He said on 'Smartless' Monday that he's strategically taking bookings on platforms where he knows audiences, particularly younger Americans, receive their news.
'I'm doing more podcasts, more digital stuff, just because I know that's where a lot of people get their information,' Buttiegieg said. 'I've been teaching one day a week at the Institute of Politics in Chicago, at the University of Chicago there, and one of the things I do is I'm always asking my students when we sit down, a lot of times I'll do a show of hands: Where do you get your news? The number of students who raised their hands when I asked how many of them get their news from television was zero. Literally zero.'
He continued: 'They might see a clip from TV if it goes into their TikTok feeds or Instagram or something like that, but, you know, I don't think of myself as that much older than them, but I grew up in a world where you watched a TV story about some controversy, you heard the conservative opinion, you heard the liberal opinion, and maybe hearing the other side made you feel the way you feel even more strongly, or maybe it made you change your mind a little bit or ask another question. But the point is, you'd think about it. You'd stop and think about it. And it's very hard for that to happen now the way our media works, so I'm trying to cut through some of those categories.'
Check out Buttigieg's full interview on 'Smartless' here.The post Pete Buttigieg Defends His Reasons for Going on Fox News — but Understands Why More Democrats Don't appeared first on TheWrap.
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Politico
37 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump floats regime change in Iran after US strikes nuclear sites, muddying the administration's message
President Donald Trump's top national security officials spent much of Sunday insisting his administration doesn't want to bring about the end of Iran's government, only its nuclear program. Then Trump left the door open for exactly that. 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. While Trump did not call for the ouster of the regime, or say that the U.S. would play any role in overthrowing the Iranian government, his words undercut what had appeared to be a coordinated message from his top advisers. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth each insisted Sunday that the U.S. was only interested in dismantling Iran's nuclear capabilities. 'We don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program,' Vance told ABC. 'That's what the president set us out to do.' The others also focused their statements around the idea that the strikes were limited and focused solely on Iran's nuclear program. The conflicting tones highlight the difficulty the Trump administration faces as it tries to navigate the fallout — both domestically and abroad — of its massive strike on Iran. Officials want to convince Tehran to keep its response limited, and mollify the factions of the MAGA base that didn't want the U.S. to launch the strikes. But Trump's post makes clear the sense inside the administration that this all may end with the Iranian government toppled. Rubio was the first to flag the possibility on Sunday. While he reiterated that toppling Iran's theocratic republic was not the goal of the strikes, he said that if the country remained committed to becoming a nuclear power, it could imperil the survival of the regime. 'I think it would be the end of the regime if they tried to do that,' Rubio said, speaking on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. Trump's willingness to consider regime change is likely to stoke divisions inside his party. So far, many of Trump's supporters, many of whom had opposed attacking Iran, have rallied around him, cheering the strike as a limited action, but there were already signs of dissension before his social media post. In a lengthy post on X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she is 'sick of' American participation in foreign wars and feared the knock on effects. 'American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits,' she said. Vance was seen as the leader of the GOP's anti-war faction before he endorsed Trump's approach this week. Vance said in a separate interview Sunday that the U.S. sees a path toward speaking with Iran's current government and integrating it into the international community if it pledges to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.. 'We want to end their nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here,' he said on NBC's Meet the Press. Though it will take days to assess the full effect of American strikes, Iran has already vowed to retaliate. The country's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that the U.S. 'crossed a very big red line' and that it was not the time for diplomacy. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long publicly flirted with Iranian regime change, saying that changing Iran's government is not the goal of Israeli operations but could be an effect as the country is weakened. Inside the administration, Trump and his team still feel confident they can keep the response from spilling into something larger. 'Trump believes he can do this without regime change, and if anyone can, it's going to be him,' a U.S. official said before Trump's social media post, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking. Victoria Coates, former deputy national security adviser in Trump's first term and vice president at the Heritage Foundation, said 'the big question' will be whether he can keep the party together but that the initial signs are positive — including Vance's support. 'He is taking the role of asking some tough questions that need to be asked, but if he's satisfied — as clearly he was about the Iran operation — he's going to get on board and support the president, because that's what his job is,' she said. 'It indicates to me that the vast majority of the party is going to come together here — there's always going to be some outliers.' Rep. 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Still, Trump last week mused publicly about killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And there are Republican hawks pushing to seize the opportunity to topple the government in Tehran. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a hawkish voice in the party, said on Meet the Press Sunday that Israel should have tried to topple Iran's government 'a long time ago.' Graham said he spoke Sunday with Netanyahu, who told Graham, 'this regime is not going to be tolerated by Israel.' After Trump's post, Graham said on X, 'President Trump is spot on with his desire to make Iran great again by changing the regime either through their behavior or new leadership.' Hegseth said on Sunday that the U.S. had delivered messages publicly and privately to Iran, adding that the regime understands 'precisely' the administration's position. In hailing the operation as a success at a Pentagon press conference, Hegseth underscored that the goal of the attack 'has not been about regime change' and pledged that the U.S. effort in Iran would not be 'open-ended,' batting away any comparisons to the long running American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that Trump campaigned against. 'Anything can happen in conflict, we acknowledge that,' Hegseth told reporters. 'But the scope of this was intentionally limited. That's the message that we're sending.' Another longtime GOP national security official with ties to some of the party's more hawkish figures suggested that Iran's military options are 'severely degraded' and that escalation should concern Tehran far more than it would the White House. 'The idea should terrify Khamenei,' said the official, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. 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Politico
42 minutes ago
- Politico
US attack on Iran creates dividing line in final days of New York mayoral race
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CNBC
an hour ago
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Oil prices jump 4% after U.S. strikes on Iran raise fears of supply disruption
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