Pete Buttigieg throws shade at Trump’s 2024 running mate JD Vance on Real Time with Bill Mayer

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken aim at the Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance.

Speaking on Real Time with Bill Maher, Buttigieg said that Vance was a close ally of former PayPal boss and Republican donor Peter Thiel, who has backed Trump for President.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk has also backed Trump, committing to donating $45m per month to a pro-Trump super PAC. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also came out in support of Trump recently.

When asked why tech billionaires were supporting conservatives like Trump, Buttigieg said: “It’s super simple. These are very rich men who have decided to back the Republican party that tends to do good things for very rich men.”

Buttigieg also compared Vance to former vice-president Mike Pence, saying that he hoped, “as a human being”, that “things work out a little bit better for JD Vance than they did for Mike Pence”.

“[Pence] got four glorious years, I guess, as vice president,” said Buttigieg. “[I]t ended on the west front of the Capitol with Trump supporters proposing that he be hanged, for using the one shred of integrity he still had, to stand up to an attempt to overthrow the government.”

“I guess maybe not as a politician, but as a human being, what I’ll say is that I hope things work out a little bit better for JD Vance than they did for Mike Pence.”

Could Pete Buttigieg be Kamala Harris’ VP?

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election, he and several other Democrats have endorsed vice-president Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Buttigieg endorsed Harris on X, writing in a statement: “Kamala Harris is now the right person to take up the torch, defeat Donald Trump, and succeed Joe Biden as president. I have seen her extraordinary leadership firsthand, working closely with her during the 2020 campaign and then in the historically effective Biden-Harris administration. I will do all that I can to help her win this election to lead America forward as our next president.”

Since then, Buttigeig has been trending as a potential vice-presidential nominee for Harris.

A former White House official told Politico: “Any convo about the ticket has to include someone like Pete. The Vance takedown video from Friday is exhibit A of how he is our party’s best communicator. He also has the background and experience it takes and was vetted in the 2020 race.”

“I think Pete understands the gravity of this moment for the future of the American experiment and would want to do anything he could to support the Democratic ticket,” a longtime Buttigieg supporter also told Politico.

Is Kamala Harris the new Presidential nominee for the Democrats?

President Biden has already announced his support for Harris to take his place as the Democratic Party’s nominee.

But, as the nomination will not be confirmed until the Democratic National Convention (DNC) next month, it is unclear whether it will be Harris on the ticket or not.

There is no guarantee that Harris will take Biden’s place as the nominee as it will be up to the delegates at the DNC. However, at the time of writing she has received multiple endorsements from various figures, from President Biden and Pete Buttigieg to Charli XCX.