Iowa Cedar Rapids - Pete Buttigieg, who serves as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, appears to admit that he doesn't think Biden should run to his second White House term.

When asked whether the Democrats would have been better off without Biden as the nominee, Buttigieg replied: "Maybe, now, you know, in hindsight, I think most people agree that it is."

Buttigieg, who won the 2020 Democratic Iowa Caucus, spoke at a Hawkeye Town Hall chaired by a progressive veteran PAC. Buttigieg Serve He served as Biden's transportation secretary from 2021 until he left the office in January.

Buttigieg talked about whether he saw Biden experiencing any signs of cognitive decline. Speculation about Biden's situation rising The consequences eventually led to Biden withdrawing from the game after a poor debate on President Trump in June.

“Whenever I get his stuff from the West Wing, I get it,” Buttigieg said of Biden. “Last year I worked with him was Baltimore Bridge collapses. I want to tell you that the same president I see all over the world is the president I am involved in. ”

This visit to Iowa It's been recently In 2026, he has made many media appearances in recent weeks in the U.S. Senate game in Michigan.

“Anyone can come to Iowa before the election is coming,” Buttigieg joked with the audience shortly after attending the stage for the voting event. “I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to talk to someone I met five or six years ago, and this was the first time I met.”

Buttigieg talked about whether he was evaluating a potential presidential campaign and told reporters: "Now, I'm not running for it. Part of the exciting part of this kind of opportunity is to fight for values ​​and ideas rather than specific elected offices."

What can be done when the audience asks the audience for some of the Trump administration Proposed cutting For the Department of Veterans Affairs, Buttigieg encouraged them not to "retreat".

"This inevitable feeling the president is trying to create, invincible, right," he said. "But it's not true. Don't back down. When he messes up well enough, they back down, not as often as I thought, but they keep changing their minds. They change their minds."

Buttigieg's speech responded to similar comments he made in media appearances in recent weeks, especially when talking about the future of the Democrats, who encouraged "meet them."

Buttigieg said that when the Democrats finally made it, the party’s proposal to return to the status quo is “political and substantial wrong”.

"I'm not here to say we have to get things back to the same way we do in 2023," Buttigieg said. "The hard fact is that if our government, our politics, our society and our economy are at work, we wouldn't be here. The parental populist movement, they're not just everywhere."

Buttigieg refused to weigh whether Iowa should be the Democratic Party’s first major competition in 2028. In 2023, with Biden's support, the Democratic National Committee Controversial Changes Calendar that makes South Carolina the first state on the Democratic primary agenda. Prior to that, since 1972, the Iowa core would have led to this process.

"People like me are manufacturers, not recipients, just the rules," Buttigieg said. "What I'm going to say is that Iowa shows me what you have to do in the backyard, do a few town halls a day. It makes me possible to be a candidate, which undoubtedly makes me better, not only to be a candidate, but to be a civil servant."