Translation
Out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said the U.S. public has reached a “volcanic” “boiling point” of impatience with the president over his broken promises to lower prices, end foreign wars, and release the government files on deceased child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — all issues that the president promised to resolve in his second term.
On NPR’s Morning Edition, host Steve Inskeep asked Buttigieg what he makes of the fact that polls have shown that Americans have an interest in the Epstein files. Buttigieg noted that Republicans recently closed the U.S. House of Representatives rather than allow legislators to vote on releasing the files, suggesting that there’s something in the files that’s “very sensitive” for the president.
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He also emphasized the need for compassion for all parties involved in the debate.
“But also, I think it speaks more broadly to this pattern of events where the president has said he would do something when it suited him to say he would do it, and then, when it’s his interest to do the reverse, he’ll do that,” Buttigieg added.
“He said he would lower prices on Day One [of his presidency] — he did the reverse,” Buttigieg continued. “He said he’d bring peace to the Middle East on Day One. Bring peace to Russia and Ukraine on Day One. And he said that he was going to release these files right away, and now it’s more in his interest to block them.”
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While Buttigieg said he thought release of the files held more interest for the president’s base of supporters, he added, “You shouldn’t have to be a Republican or Democrat to care about making sure there’s transparency on something as horrific as the abuses have happened, and to want to understand why an administration that promised to shed light on this, decided not to. There’s never been any real explanation for that.”
“I think there are moments where [the president] has revealed how little respect he has for his own supporters,” Buttigieg said. “One of the reasons why I think the Epstein saga is especially relevant is, by telling them that this was important, that he would do something, and then to turn around saying he won’t do something and that they’re stupid if they care about this, he’s putting his thumb in their eye even more than usual. Basically, he’s saying that he thinks they’re gullible.”
Buttigieg said he thinks the larger issue is that people feel that their government isn’t telling the truth, adding, “It’s easy to see why frustration about that has reached a boiling point in this country…. We’ve got a broader issue of a breakdown, collapse in societal trust. This has been going on for years. I wrote a book about this five years ago, and I think it’s even more important now. And unless there is a higher degree of fidelity between our institutions, our leaders, and the people they serve, then issue after issue will become volcanic, as this has, and it’s just not sustainable on that matter of trust.”
He criticized the president for trying to become an “autocrat,” saying, “We have not had a president, left, right, or center, who has tried to destroy companies, universities, and broadcasters who criticize his government. We have had disagreements over court rulings, but never had an administration that has been so ready to just say no when a court says, ‘You have to do this.'”
He also criticized the administration’s choice of cabinet members, saying, “He can get away with appointing incompetent people over very important things in our lives. So right now, we have the secretary of defense [Pete Hegseth] in charge of defending the American people, who was accidentally texting military information to journalists. We have the person in charge of American public health [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] who is a quack who doesn’t believe in medicine, and now measles is on the rise in America… So these things do affect you.”
Last, Buttigieg said that a “politics of fear” has taken hold of both Democrats and Republicans, stating, “It’s more real than at any point in my lifetime… but we can’t allow that. The thing about politics of fear is, the more you get into it, the worse it gets. The only antidote to politics of fear is politics of courage.”
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