Pete Blasts Trump Administration, Live on CNN

As the war in the Middle East escalates, my next guest says that we've seen this movie before. Joining us now, former Transportation Secretary and Afghan war veteran Pete Buttigieg. Secretary Hagseth, I want to play something that Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth said earlier this week about how this war differs from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a listen.

This is not 2003. This is not endless nation- under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close.

Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again.

You're also a part of that generation of soldier. What's your take?

What I'm worried about is not the soldiers and the people who are serving. What I'm worried about is their political leadership like Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump. You know, we lived through a war that was sold to us on false pretenses when I was younger. This war has not been sold on any pretense. The president just went ahead and did it. Here's the biggest thing that has not changed since the war in Afghanistan or the war in Iraq.

The biggest thing that has not changed is who pays the price. We have now seen 13 American service members killed. And when you prepare to go to war, the thing you think about, the thing you most dread is your family being the ones to get that knock on the door. More than a dozen American families

have now gotten that knock on the door. And the president has basically assured us that there will be more where that came from. And while they're paying the ultimate price, every American is paying some price. Right now, mortgage rates are up because of this war. Food is going to be more expensive because of this war. And of course, the price of gas that we're paying at the pump is more expensive

because of this war. So the Trump administration argues that they needed to take action to take out Iran's nuclear weapons program and Iran's ballistic missile program because when they came into office, the Biden administration, your administration had done nothing in four years to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, developing ballistic missiles, funding terrorism around the world. Are they wrong?

Yes, of course they're wrong. I mean, for one thing, the president assured us that the nuclear program, President Trump assured us that the nuclear program was, in his words, obliterated just a few months ago. And let's also remember that in the past, Iran's nuclear program was contained without a shot being fired. I think President Trump thought he could get a better deal than the Obama administration did. He failed to get that better deal. And he went off and launched a war without planning,

without being ready for even some of the most basic things. I mean, it is a certainty that the military would have advised him that the Straits of Hormuz would have been closed, that that was a likely scenario. And yet they're talking about this and clearly acting as though they didn't think this and clearly acting as though they didn't think this would happen. Secretary Hegseth went so far as to say that the Strait of Hormuz is open, other than the

fact that there would be fire against vehicles transiting the strait. This is clearly amateur hour at the Pentagon and in the White House, and again, the price is being paid by all of us. You can also just tell from the administration's attitude toward this war, the fact that they're putting out videos treating this like a video game. It's not a video game for the families of the fallen.

And then just this week, we saw campaign fundraising materials being put out, e-mails, where the president's committee, the president's political operation, was raising money off of images of him at a dignified transfer. Any politician who does that has no business leading American troops in the war. If the president is willing to raise campaign funds over the bodies of

America's war dead, he is unfit to be the commander in chief. You live in Michigan now with your family. There was this horrific terrorist attack or anti-Semitic attack whatever whatever the motivations were out on a synagogue outside Detroit. In addition there is this partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Sixty one thousand TSA

employees just missed their first full paycheck as the shutdown of D Department of Homeland Security. 61,000 TSA employees just missed their first full paycheck as the shutdown of DHS because Democrats want changes and demanding changes to ICE policies until they fund the whole DHS. It stretches into another week. You're a former transportation secretary.

You know all too well the kind of strain that this is putting on airports. And I wonder, Secretary Nome has been fired. Greg Bovino has been replaced, Tom Homan seems to have changed how things are being done to complements from Democratic officials at the state and local level. Don't you think Democrats should just take something of a win and start funding DHS again?

I think Republicans should stop blocking the Democratic proposals to fund all of DHS, including TSA and other parts, except for the parts that should be negotiated over, which is ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. Remember, ICE has already gotten tens of billions of dollars of funding. It's larger than many of the world's militaries through the president's budget. And Customs and Border Patrol has yet to face real accountability for killing an American in Minneapolis, which last time

I checked is nowhere near the American border. So there are very clear issues that need to be addressed. We cannot continue to have masked government federal agents pulling people off the streets, harassing American citizens. And this is something that the American people agree with. None of that has to result in what's going on right now with TSA workers, for example, not getting paid.

The lines are getting longer. Every time I'm in one of those lines, whether it's yesterday or today, later I will be, I think about how much I appreciate the work that those officers do to keep this country safe. And again, Democrats have repeatedly, I believe five times last week alone, Democrats have proposed to get those TSA officers paid, to get all of DHS funded, except for those two pieces where the Republicans just refuse to come to the table.

They would rather see this shutdown continue than negotiate a common-sense outcome with their fellow members of Congress on the

Democratic side. One of the reasons you're in airports so much is you're traveling across the country. You're currently in Georgia. You campaigned yesterday with Sean Harris who is running for that open house seat vacated by former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. I want to play something that Sean Harris said about you at the event. I see something in the future. This piece not finished. I got a funny feeling that this piece

has come to the stage right now might be your president someday.

You've also been in New Hampshire, in Pennsylvania, states that are important for any presidential presidential, any potential presidential candidate. Is what you're doing entirely about the midterms or are you also setting a stage for a possible 2028 run?

Look I've also been in states like Alabama and Ohio. I'm going where I think I can make myself useful to candidates and causes that I believe in. Obviously 2028 will come but right now we're in 2026, and we've got an amazing groundswell of support, but we've got to keep pushing on that. That event yesterday was extraordinary. As you mentioned, this is a very, very conservative district. Sean Harris, who's distinguished himself as a veteran, a general, is leading a great campaign for

Marjorie Taylor Greene's former seat. The really incredible thing to me was, you could hear it in that crowd, there were hundreds of people there. This is in northwest Georgia, again, extremely conservative area. I'm told that was about twice as many people as came to see President Trump himself when he was there just a few weeks ago. So what that tells me is there's a different kind of coalition coming together right now.

Democrats, independents, lots of people who normally vote Republican, who agree that we need balanced government, we need some kind of check on this reckless, out of control administration. And I'm going to be doing everything I can to support and build that coalition every day until the election comes. Secretary Buttigieg, thanks so much that coalition every day until the election comes. Secretary Buttigieg, thanks so much

for joining us today. Safe travels.