JD Vance knows Trump’s “bad” for the country, Pete Buttigieg says

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says Senator JD Vance knows that Donald Trump is not good for the country.

“I think there’s a bunch of people, including him, who know deep down how bad Donald Trump is for the country, realize that they could gain power by attaching themselves to him, and he did it,” Buttigieg said on the Ezra Klein Show podcast.

Vance, who is Trump’s running mate, said in the year before the former president took office that he was a “never Trump guy.” He also criticized Trump, using words like “idiot” and “Hitler.”

“As somebody who doesn’t like Trump myself, I sort of—I understand where Trump’s voters come from,” Vance said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016. “But I also don’t like Trump himself, and that made me realize that maybe I’m not quite part of either world totally.”

Buttigieg said this is a common switch that he has seen among other Republicans.

“I’ve certainly seen a lot of Republicans, especially my generation of Republicans, go through some version of this evolution,” Buttigieg said. “I think it’s more dramatic in his case, and I think it means there’s a real contradiction in him.”

The transportation secretary also called out Vance for “simultaneously” standing as the Republican who is supposed to explain conservatism to the world while also standing with Trump’s “facts don’t matter campaign.”

The transportation secretary said Vance has criticized both parties for “getting things wrong” yet goes on to vote for “good old-fashioned Republican” policies about issues like tax cuts for the rich and “undermining your right to choose.”

Newsweek reached out by email to the Vance campaign for comment in response to Buttigieg’s remarks.

Buttigieg has lately spent time analyzing Vance and portraying him in debate preparations for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ahead of the vice presidential face-off next Tuesday.

The running mates’ pitches in the high-stakes event will particularly aim to sway undecided voters in battleground states—albeit from the Democratic stronghold of New York City—on major issues that have defined the presidential race, including the economy, immigration and reproductive rights.

The vice presidential debate comes just weeks after Trump and Harris faced off in Philadelphia.

Buttigieg said the GOP vice presidential nominee has carved out a “faux populism” space where he’s able to achieve “credibility by criticizing both parties.”

“He’s somebody that’s a product of the Midwest,” Buttigieg said. “But, after trading off that Midwest identity, is now, in my opinion, promoting policies in a ticket that would be really harmful for the industrial Midwest.”

In terms of policies, Buttigieg said Vance is saying, “These institutions don’t work for you, the people. So we’re going to take them back on behalf of the people.”

“But what he means is: ‘These institutions don’t work for me, a right-wing politician. And so we’re going to put them under the control of right-wing politicians.'”

Using a word Walz has used against the Republican ticket, Buttigieg said, “Weird doesn’t even begin to characterize how I view that campaign.”