Buttigieg: McConnell will have to decide if he’ll stand in the way of health care, tax plans

Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg told Fox News on Sunday that President-elect Joe Biden faces an adversarial Senate should it remain Republican-controlled.

“Mitch McConnell’s gonna have a decision to make,” Buttigieg told host Chris Wallace. “Is his purpose in Washington to defy the American people who along with the president and the House of Representatives will believe in expanding, not taking away, health care, ensuring that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes instead of slashing their taxes no matter what, raising wages, treating climate change as real?”

Buttigieg said that if McConnell “wants to stop progress” he feared the Republican Party would “pay a devastating price politically.” 

When Wallace asked Buttigieg how President Trump’s refusal to concede will affect Biden’s calls for unity, the former South Bend, Ind., mayor said Biden is committed to working with those who did not necessarily support his candidacy.

“I think it’s one of the reasons you see the president-elect already reaching out to those who didn’t vote for him, and he didn’t just say, ‘Give me a chance’ or just say, ‘I’m going to give you a chance,’” Buttigieg said.“He said, ‘Let’s give each other a chance,’ and that’s an example of how he’s beginning to work with the nation.”

Buttigieg is considered a contender for a place in Biden’s Cabinet, possibly as secretary of Veterans Affairs, as he is a Navy veteran.