Pete Buttigieg addresses 2028 hypothesis throughout Iowa go to

[ad_1] CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA - Pete Buttigieg pushed again towards criticism from President Donald Trump on the job he did as transportation secretary in former President Biden's administration and declined to say if Biden skilled cognitive decline throughout his last years within the White Home, as he took questions from reporters on Tuesday evening.

Buttigieg , talking with reporters after headlining a city corridor with veterans on this japanese Iowa metropolis that sparked extra hypothesis that the 2020 Democratic presidential contender is mulling one other White Home run in 2028, instructed Fox Information that 'proper now I’m not operating for something."

Buttigieg received the 2020 Iowa presidential caucuses and got here in an in depth second within the New Hampshire presidential major earlier than Biden surged to say the celebration's nomination and later the White Home.

Whereas Iowa's caucuses for half a century kicked off each main political events' presidential nominating calendars, the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) demoted the Hawkeye State on their 2024 schedule, and it is unclear if Iowa will regain its early state standing within the 2028 calendar.

LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS INTO TRUMP'S SECOND TERM, DEMOCRATS ALREADY EYEING 2028 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/05/672/378/pete-buttigieg-cedar-rapids-ia-townhall-may-13-2025-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/05/1344/756/pete-buttigieg-cedar-rapids-ia-townhall-may-13-2025-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/05/931/523/pete-buttigieg-cedar-rapids-ia-townhall-may-13-2025-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/05/1862/1046/pete-buttigieg-cedar-rapids-ia-townhall-may-13-2025-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg headlines a veterans city corridor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Could 13, 2025. Buttigieg's look sparked hypothesis he could make one other presidential run in 2028. (Fox Information - Paul Steinhauser)

However Buttigieg's go to, alongside along with his announcement in March that he would go on a 2026 run for a Democrat-controlled open Senate seat in battleground Michigan, his adopted residence state, are seen as indicators of his curiosity in a possible 2028 nationwide run.

Buttigieg instructed a Substack creator in a reside interview hours earlier than the city corridor that on the subject of 2028, he would take into account "what I carry to the desk."

However requested by Fox Information if the trip to Iowa - the place he additionally gathered with staffers from his 2020 marketing campaign and was adopted round by a videographer from his political group Win the Period - was the start of an evaluation interval, Buttigieg mentioned "proper now, I’m not operating for something and a part of what’s thrilling and compelling about a possibility like that is to be campaigning for values and for concepts relatively than a particular electoral marketing campaign. So that is what I am about."

Instructed that viewers members who mentioned they voted for him in 2020 and can be involved in backing him once more if he runs in 2028, Buttigieg mentioned "after all it means lots to listen to that individuals who supported me then proceed to imagine in what I've to say."

WATCH: TRUMP TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY LAYS OUT NEW PLAN TO UPGRADE AGING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM

The journey by Buttigieg got here as he is confronted incoming fireplace in latest days from Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over a surge in flight delays and cancellations at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport, which is without doubt one of the three main airports that providers the New York Metropolis metropolitan space.

Duffy blames his predecessor on the Division of Transportation and the Biden administration for what he claims was a failure to improve the busy airport's air site visitors management system.

And Trump , final week, additionally chimed in, claiming that in his tenure as transportation secretary Buttigieg "didn’t have a clue. And this man is definitely a contender for president?" Trump added. "I do not assume he will do too nicely."

The president's jabs got here a couple of days after Buttigieg, pointing to Trump's underwater approval scores in nationwide polling, mentioned in a social media put up that "Donald Trump is probably the most unpopular 100-day-mark president in trendy American historical past."

WATCH: TRUMP TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY LAYS OUT NEW PLAN TO UPGRADE AGING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM

The Trump administration argues that Buttigieg oversaw a rocky transition of the Newark airport's airspace to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Strategy Management (Tracon) final July.

And Duffy, who earlier this week unveiled a serious plan to overtake the nation's growing old air site visitors management system, claims the Biden administration is guilty for the latest issues, together with air site visitors management tools outages.

"Perhaps if you do business from home, or possibly if you work from Michigan as a secretary, possibly you’re not targeted on the actual points which are going down all through the airspace," Duffy mentioned, as he took purpose at Buttigieg, who lives in Michigan.

Buttigieg, responding, instructed reporters on Tuesday evening that "if you’re the secretary of transportation, you've gotten a troublesome job and your duty is to repair powerful issues. You don’t have time to take pleasure in making an attempt to level fingers or blame different individuals."

"What I can let you know is we inherited a shrinking air site visitors management workforce. We turned it right into a rising air site visitors management workforce," he added. "My successor is, after all, not asking for my recommendation, however my recommendation can be to creating certain that it grows and truly delivering the technological change that’s wanted."

Then-President Joe Biden speaks on the State Division, in the course of the closing days of his presidency, on Jan. 13, 2025. (AP)

Buttigieg's Iowa journey additionally got here on the identical day that excerpts from a brand new e-book supplied particulars on Biden's supposed psychological and bodily decline throughout his final two years within the White Home.

Requested whether or not Biden skilled cognitive decline, Buttigieg would solely say that "each time I wanted one thing from him from the West Wing, I obtained it."

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However he mentioned "possibly" when requested whether or not the Democratic Get together would have been higher off if Biden had not run for re-election in 2024. "Proper now with the good thing about hindsight, I feel most individuals would agree that that is the case."

Biden dropped out of the race final July, one month after a disastrous debate efficiency with Trump sparked a refrain of calls from fellow Democrats for the then-81-year-old president to finish his re-election bid. He was changed on the high of the ticket by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who ended up dropping in November to Trump.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter primarily based within the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the marketing campaign path from coast to coast."