JUST IN: Potential VP Contender Sec. Buttigieg Takes Press Questions Ahead Of Harris Announcing Pick

2 months ago

On Friday, Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, who may be a contender for Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate, spoke to the press.

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Transcript

00:00How do you respond to concerns that the infrastructure isn't good enough for EVs, that sales have

00:07slowed, that there are concerns about range, and that kind of thing?

00:16This is pushed on the American consumer before really they're responding.

00:31Well, every single year more Americans have chosen to buy an EV than the year prior.

00:36That's an uninterrupted pattern so far, and I expect it to continue.

00:39While 80% of EV charging happens at home, it is true that we need to build out more EV infrastructure.

00:45That's exactly what we're doing.

00:47The country has roughly doubled its EV publicly available chargers since President Biden took office.

00:52We're right in the neighborhood of 180,000.

00:54That's been driven by the private sector.

00:56We need public funding to deploy public funding to fill in the gaps, areas where it's not yet profitable to put in EV charging.

01:04So we've got a program doing exactly that.

01:06Most of those chargers will go in in the second half of this decade, and we're confident that we will meet

01:12or beat President Biden's goal of having half a million chargers in place by the end of the decade.

01:16Kokomo was once considered the third most dying town in the entire country.

01:21When you guys were choosing where to make these investments, these massive investments,

01:25did you take that into consideration, or did you take your politics into consideration?

01:29How was that decided?

01:31Part of why I'm so excited to be here is I remember how tough it was in Kokomo and Howard County.

01:38I got into politics because of the fight over whether to save our auto industry,

01:42and I'm so glad that the Obama-Biden administration did that because we've seen the growth it came.

01:47It was very personal for me because I saw what happened when you lose those auto factories.

01:51That's what happened in my hometown, and it took us 50 years to dig out of that and it's out now.

01:56So it's been important, whether it's in a community here with a proud auto manufacturing tradition

02:01that goes back to the Haynes after some days, or some of the places that didn't have as much of it in the past,

02:06but I've seen factories in DeSoto, Kansas, Glendale, Kentucky under construction,

02:11all the way up to closest to South Bend where there's one in the works as well over in New Carlisle.

02:15All of that is a great example of what America's manufacturing renaissance looks like.

02:21This is without regard to politics.

02:23You see states red, blue, and purple winning in this new EV economy,

02:27but we're not putting a thumb on the scale there,

02:30but where we are putting a thumb on the scale is to make sure that that EV transition is made in America

02:35and that we don't fall behind in competition with China.

02:38Part of on-shoring?

02:40On-shoring, friend-shoring.

02:42You'll see there's an international joint venture here, but it's creating all these jobs right here on American soil.

02:47President Biden has been very focused, and the whole Biden-Harris administration has been very focused,

02:52on made in America and industrial policy, which used to be kind of a dirty word in policy circles,

02:58but we believe in industrial policy because we believe in lifting up the next generation of manufacturing jobs here in America,

03:04and certainly a few places can benefit more from that than this part of the industrial market.

03:11The city of San Francisco has purchased a media station, a phone station, and is looking to partner with the federal government.

03:16Have you heard of that?

03:19I was very excited to hear of that, and I think there's enormous potential in terms of having that downtown service for storing.

03:27It's not something that could happen overnight. It'll take a lot of work.

03:31But that's what Union Station was built for, was to accommodate traffic.

03:35And for any Amtrak passenger who's had the experience of going right past it on the way to the station that's not in the heart of the city,

03:42I think there's always been an interest in doing that.

03:45So, you know, it's funny, I was as far away as Wisconsin riding the Amtrak there with Governor Evers,

03:50and it was a topic of conversation with some of the Amtrak personnel there.

03:54So no big announcements and nothing certain. Lots of steps have to happen.

03:58But I was very pleased to see that stepping forward.

04:01What do you miss most about living in the area?

04:03I miss a lot. Of course, I love our new home close to family, and we love northern Michigan.

04:10But there are so many people and so many places that I'm interested in spending more time with in South Bend,

04:16and I hope I'll get the chance soon.

04:18And I've been to a ballgame in Asia, so hopefully I can get to one of their game games as well.

04:23Thank you very much. Road-related questions.

04:26Highways are something that your agency has been very involved in in the last few decades.

04:31And you have finally almost done the inception of I-69 experience.

04:36It was actually funded by that 75-year-old company, but do you think that highway construction is going to be the best in the next few years?

04:46Well, we need an all-of-the-above strategy, right?

04:49We're going to need roads and bridges and highways.

04:52We also need to create alternatives, which is why we're undertaking the largest investment in public transit in the history of the federal government

05:00and the largest investment in passenger rail since the inception of Amtrak about 50 years ago.

05:05We've got to make sure that people have different ways to get to where they need to be,

05:08especially because our inheritance is a pattern in terms of the way our cities and countryside were built

05:15that has often forced people to have no choice but their car.

05:19Garrett in Manila.

05:20Do you see the completion of I-69 here in Indiana as another component of efforts to bring jobs back to areas like,

05:27I mean, obviously, Kokomo, we're not on the I-69 corridor itself, but places like this?

05:31Well, you know, certainly part of what goes into supply chains is having efficient roadway connections.

05:36Now, we largely defer to the state in terms of what they prioritize, but we keep that federal funding pumping.

05:42And with our discretionary programs, we're going to do everything we can to support outcomes of safety

05:48and economic wins, climate wins, equity wins in New York.

05:52That's great.

05:53Can you explain the precise relationship between the administration's funding and these projects in New York today?

05:59And what else can we expect in Indiana coming up?

06:01Well, the administration's worked hard to create a climate where it makes sense to invest in the EV industry

06:07right here on American soil.

06:09The Inflation Reduction Act contained tax credits and provisions that stimulate that growth in the industry.

06:15So do infrastructure moves that we're making, like that creation of an EV charging network with federal support.

06:22All of those add up to a robust EV industry, because even though we think EV will be the future of the automotive sector,

06:30even without us, that doesn't mean that it's automatic, that it'll happen quickly enough,

06:34and it'll happen on American soil.

06:36That's where we think policy plays a big role.

06:39Carson?

06:40Yeah, a lot of money goes to the wind projects.

06:43Indiana has a very hyper-local approach to approving these projects.

06:47It just stands on having a very hyper-local approval system for these projects that we're doing this year.

06:54Well, look, you know, whether we're talking about the local level or the federal level,

06:57there are, of course, a number of important considerations and requirements that go with the project.

07:01We've also got to make sure that any time there's unnecessary regulatory or duplicative processes,

07:07that we try to weed that out so that good things can happen.

07:10We're all about building good things.

07:12And I think federally, there's a lot that we're still working on to get out of our way on infrastructure development

07:18and certainly clean infrastructure development.

07:20We can't tell local and state governments what to do,

07:24but we encourage them to take a similar approach that tries to make sure we get good outcomes,

07:28certainty, and clarity in these regulatory processes.

07:32South Bank, Dr. Andy, a question?

07:35If you just want to talk about some of the health tools to be used investing in the health of your businesses.

07:43You know, I remember a time when we were told that manufacturing was permanently in the past,

07:49that you could either care about manufacturing or you could care about technology,

07:53and we had to walk away from manufacturing into the future.

07:56What we found instead is that we're very much walking into the future,

07:59but it's manufacturing that goes hand-in-hand with technology.

08:03What I just saw in that facility, the Star Plus facility,

08:08is one of the most technologically sophisticated things I've ever witnessed,

08:12and yet it's in a tradition that goes all the way back through the Studebaker days to the Elwood Haynes days here in Howard Hill.

08:18It all fits together, and I think, you know, if we really want to do right by our manufacturing tradition,

08:24the point is not to move back in time,

08:26but we want to emulate about the great manufacturers of the past is the fact that they were focused on the future,

08:31and that's exactly what I see in this EV industry.

08:35Is there anything you can say about your future?

08:37Have you spoken to Vice President Harris?

08:39I'm just going to go to Ali first, and then we'll take that out.

08:42Yeah, quickly. Secretary, you talked a lot about job creation today.

08:46The July jobs report out this morning, obviously showing a lot fewer jobs created than expected,

08:52unemployment rising, just wondering kind of your reaction to that

08:55and how you see, you know, the administration perhaps turning that around.

09:00You know, we will continue to see month-to-month variations,

09:04but we also saw an increase in labor force participation,

09:07and this is coming in the midst of the longest run and the biggest run of job creation in the history of the American presidency.

09:14So we need to double down on what we know is working

09:17and make sure that we support workers who are getting into these new jobs that are growing as they make their career choices.

09:24That's not just the industrial policy.

09:26There's also an education policy supporting places like Ivy Tech, unions and their apprenticeship programs.

09:31All of that we think will help people, help workers continue to ride the wave of the economic growth that's been happening these last few years.

09:38Okay, back there.

09:40Mr. Secretary, what can the private sector do to support innovators like Tesla?

09:45Besides the regulations, are there things that you hear anything to do with Tesla?

09:50Well, Tesla is a great example of a company whose success is partly the result of support from government

09:56in terms of climate policies, in terms of the loan program that benefited Tesla,

10:02and we view that as the kind of public-private partnership that stimulates innovation.

10:07Look, there are things that only the private sector can do.

10:09There are other things that can only be done through that kind of partnership.

10:12And I would go all the way back to the partnership that invented the Internet itself.

10:16We're always looking at ways to make sure that we are stimulating and supporting innovation

10:20and at the same time meeting our responsibilities to have rules and regulations that protect safety,

10:26the environment and other things that we collectively as Americans care about.

10:30CBS, do you have a question?

10:32Okay, that's all we have time for. Thanks, everybody.

10:34Secretary, we're going to go back out this way.

10:38Thanks, everybody. Thanks for those 10 minutes.

10:49I'm really glad everyone got their question in.

JUST IN: Potential VP Contender Sec. Buttigieg Takes Press Questions Ahead Of Harris Announcing Pick

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