U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. (Screenshot YouTube)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg delivering remarks at a symposium at The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on May 4 blasted Republicans for the reignited culture wars, especially targeting women’s reproductive rights and the transgender community.
Buttigieg outlined the facts that on several issues of importance to everyday Americans, the GOP was unable to come up with substantial solutions to concerns on the economy, jobs and health care.
“You got a political faction that really doesn’t have a lot of answers for many of the questions that people are wrestling with,” the secretary noted. “So, what do they do? They find somebody vulnerable and pick on, which at the moment is largely the trans community.”
Buttigieg took aim at the recent litany of anti-LGBTQ legislation, making particular reference to Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law.
“If my kids in let’s say a first-grade classroom were to mention in passing that over the weekend they had that they had a great time going with their dads to the zoo, that they would have somehow by saying that uttered something age-inappropriate? [That should] get us really fired up about that fight,” he said.
Then he turned his attention to the renewed legal fight over Roe v Wade as evidenced by the leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion authored by conservative Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. which has caused a tidal wave of political controversy.
A new CBS News poll released May 8 found that almost two-thirds (64%) of those surveyed believe the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, while 82% believe overturning it would “be a danger to women” and “be dangerous for Americans’ rights.”
CBS also reported, looking at the one-third of Americans who do want to see Roe overturned, they would describe that action as protecting the unborn. In contrast to those who see overturning it as a danger to women, most of these Americans instead describe it as a protection for women.
Watch the full University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics coverage of “Bridges, broadband and babies: Inside Pete Buttigieg’s first year in Washington” below.
