President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team appeared to delete an old campaign ad that criticized Pete Buttigieg for his lack of experience — after the former Indiana mayor was nominated to serve as Transportation secretary, according to a report.
The ad ran in February before the New Hampshire primary election and contrasted Biden’s long career as a senator and as vice president in the Obama administration with Buttigieg’s time as mayor of South Bend, Ind. — a city of 100,000, Fox News reported.
“We’re electing a president. What you’ve done matters,” the narrator in the ad said.
The ad ran on Facebook and YouTube on Feb. 8 and came days after Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses and Biden finished in fourth place.
Buttigieg’s campaign at the time hit back, calling it “classic Washington-style” politics.
The YouTube link now says the video is unavailable and has been “removed by the uploader.”
Now, speaking on Wednesday in Wilmington, Del., Biden struck a much different tone, calling his former rival “one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet and one of the most humble.”
“A mayor from the heartland, a management expert, a policy wonk with a big heart, a veteran, lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve, an intelligence officer deployed to Afghanistan while he was mayor. A new voice with new ideas, determined to move past old politics,” Biden gushed.
Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential race on March 1 after finishing poorly South Carolina primary.
He endorsed Biden the next day.
South Bend’s transit system carries about 4,300 people per day and consists of 66 buses, according to a 2019 report from the Indiana Department of Transportation. Source Newsmax
