CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins grilled Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about President Joe Biden confusing the Ukraine war with the Iraq war twice in as many days.
COLLINS: Yes, it’s been quite some time since there was someone permanent in that position. Secretary, on another matter, twice this week, President Biden has referred to the war in Ukraine as the war in Iraq.
I don’t have to tell you, he has been facing doubts from voters about his age. He is the oldest president, of course, in the nation’s history that we’ve ever had. One of those instances happened as he was leaving the White House today.
What do you say to people who are concerned about his age and slip-ups like the one he had today?
BUTTIGIEG: All I say is I wish you could be in a room with him the way I often am, seeing how he is simultaneously focused on a big picture vision, and very focused on details.
I’ll tell you, we’ve had, for example, meetings on some of the work that we’ve been doing with rail infrastructure, where he winds up drilling in on questions so detailed.
We have to go back and set up another meeting or pull in experts from Amtrak to help satisfy the president’s desire for detailed information and his focus on how that connects up into the bigger picture.
Look, this is an administration that has been extraordinarily effective.
And, you know, one of — frankly, one of the cases that I made, back when I was running for president in an unusually young age, is that the only thing that really matters is your ability to do the job.
Right now, you have an administration that has delivered the strongest economic growth in terms of job creation of any president in American history.
Has delivered bipartisan infrastructure legislation, part of what we’re on the road working through right now, delivering great projects in places like Kentucky where I’ll be tomorrow.
South Carolina where I was today, in ways that previous presidents, including the last administration said they were going to do but just couldn’t quite make happen.
Whether we talk about the CHIPS Act, the job creation that’s happening in manufacturing, the breakthrough for veterans that matters so much to my generation of post 9/11 veterans, in terms of dealing with burn pits.
At the end of the day, anybody in any job ought to be judged on the job that they are doing.
And in just two and a half years, this administration, under President Biden’s leadership, has delivered more than many presidencies have been able to do in four or even eight years.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Confronts Pete Buttigieg About Biden Ukraine/Iraq ‘Slip-Ups’ — ‘Twice This Week’ https://t.co/3ueWfNWmIB
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 29, 2023
