Buttigieg: Debate wasn’t what ‘I would have loved for us’

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Friday lamented President Biden’s debate performance but defended his continued candidacy in the 2024 race.

“It wasn’t the debate I would have loved for us to have,” Buttigieg said on MSNBC. “I know what it’s like, to have a night on the campaign trail or a day or a moment or an event or an interview that you go back and say, ‘I would have done this different or done that different.’”

Buttigieg debated against Biden when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. As a member of Biden’s Cabinet, he has since become a staunch Biden defender.

The secretary pushed back when asked if he’d support an effort to get Biden off the ticket, telling MSNBC, “no.”

“Joe Biden is our candidate and our president because he is the best person to lead this country forward,” he added.

Former President Obama similarly defended Biden on Friday, urging voters to back him and declaring that “bad debate nights happen.”

Biden’s voice was raspy, and he lost his train of thought during the debate, leading some Democrats to panic over their prospects in November. White House and Biden campaign officials sought Friday to shut down any notion that the president will step aside or drop out of the race.