
Just a week after the Democratic Party removed President Joe Biden from the 2024 ticket and effectively anointed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, questions abound regarding Biden’s condition and the rationale behind his departure. However, more pressing are the concerns surrounding Harris’s qualifications and whether her party genuinely believes she can defeat former President Donald Trump.
In a whirlwind interview with Fox News’ Shannon Bream, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked to address the lack of democratic process in Harris’s rapid ascension. Bream quoted Bret Stephens from The New York Times, highlighting the contradiction of a supposedly democratic party selecting a nominee from the top down. “A week ago, we were doing this show and President Biden was still in the race, we now have a presumptive new nominee,” Bream began, questioning the anti-democratic optics of Harris’s selection.
Buttigieg sidestepped the question, instead praising the “remarkable” unity within the party, claiming there was “extraordinary energy” around Harris’s week-old campaign. Bream countered by noting Harris’s lack of delegate support during her 2020 presidential run, pointing out that even Buttigieg had garnered more delegates than Harris, who had dropped out before the end of December 2019 without winning a single delegate.
The interview took a critical turn as Bream quoted a former Harris staffer who expressed concerns about her “coronation” and lack of rigorous testing as a candidate. Buttigieg deflected once more, arguing that Harris’s role as vice president provided sufficient testing and experience, conveniently omitting her contentious tenure as Biden’s border czar, which has drawn significant criticism.
WATCH: @PeteButtigieg discusses questions surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris' border role. pic.twitter.com/81YdafUDki
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 28, 2024
Buttigieg further attempted to redirect the conversation to attack Trump, but Bream steered it back to Harris, questioning her accountability for Biden’s faltering campaign and her role in possibly concealing his decline from the American public. Buttigieg dismissed these concerns, asserting, “Joe Biden is good at being President,” and cited debunked claims about job creation under Biden’s administration.
He praised Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race as a “selfless” act, despite widespread speculation that the decision was influenced by powerful donors and party officials. Buttigieg attributed Biden’s visible decline to his age, while deflecting comparisons to Trump, who had recently demonstrated robust health and resilience at public events.
As the interview concluded, the glaring issue remained: the Democratic Party’s process for selecting its nominee seemed increasingly opaque and top-down, raising significant concerns about democratic integrity within the party. This controversy underscores the broader issue of maintaining transparency and trust in political processes, especially when selecting leaders who will shape the future of the nation.