Speaker 1: One of the things that I think is great about people to judge and this was the case when
he was running for for the Democratic nomination in 2020. But in particular, it's been the case, as
Joe Biden's transportation secretary, is that not only is he really good at facing down adversarial
questions, whether it's media or Republicans in hearings, he's exquisitely well prepared. Just
it's just a practical thing. He is extraordinarily well-prepared, a Republican member of Congress.
Eric Burleson brought up this totally bogus private flights thing to Pete booted judge where
there's been criticism from Republicans about, oh, he flew private. And of course, the vast majority
of his flights are commercial flights. But more importantly, secretaries often fly private and
by private, it's government planes. They're not chartering luxury private jets. They're
flying on government planes. It's just what it is. Republicans do it, Democrats do it. Pete Buttigieg
is so well prepared for this. And by the way, bonus points for those who noticed and emailed me
about Burleson pronouncing Buddha judges. Last name is Buddha Chuch Way, which is just like
an extra little cherry on top. Listen to this. Speaker 5: Secretary Buddha judge. Since taking.
Speaker 1: Buddha touch. Speaker 5: The role, you've traveled quite a bit,
including private flights. How often do you take private flights?
So I assume by private flights you mean the use of government aircraft assigned to my agency.
And I knew this might come up. So I brought some numbers. Since getting this job, I have taken.
600. These are estimates. Give or take a couple. But I've taken 638 flights
and many of those commercial. So many of those
commercial. 607 of them were commercial. Ten of. Speaker 1: Them. I'm going to back that up just
because I stepped over him about to say that ten were on private. So. What is that like 95%, 97%?
Speaker 5: A 607 of them were commercial. Ten of them were on military aircraft such
as Air Force One, and 21 of them were on FAA aircraft representing about 3% of the flights.
What was that? There was a Freedom of Information request made to your office to reveal the costs
of the travel. Have you provided those costs? Speaker 1: Again, remember that this really is
a non-story. Every transportation secretary has costs to their travel. It's it's he's Burleson
is trying to find some smoking gun but he's just the secretary of transportation. That's
all that's going on. He travels around and there are costs associated with.
Speaker 5: Have to check back with the office to see how on the traffic. But I can tell you that,
you know, we're going to complete, as I understand it all for months. And you've
not you've not provided the financial numbers for that travel. Again, I can check on the status of
your request, but I in your commit to providing that information, we will always comply with for
you. But I appreciate the chance to discuss this because I can't help to get the sense that some
people want to make it sound as if I don't travel most of the time on commercial aircraft, which of
course, is untrue. Yeah, Mr. Secretary, I think I think the irony for most people in my district is
that they're being told that they're going to have to convert to electric vehicles to reduce their
carbon footprint. And yet not everyone gets to travel the way that you do. It's just once again,
the way I usually travel is in economy class aboard an airliner like everybody else. When we
do it differently, it's often because it will save taxpayer money. I want to get off. So.
Speaker 1: You know, it's one of these total non sequiturs. The fact that it makes sense to
move towards electric vehicles because you can centralize rather than distribute the
pollution all over the place, eventually move to clean sources for the electricity. And on a per
mile basis, electric vehicles are more efficient. That's true regardless of how much Pete Boodhoo,
Judge travels and these people have nothing. They have nothing. So they're grasping at straws.
Here's another just incredible moment from this hearing where Pete booted. I don't even remember
who this was. Pete. Pete Judge talks about climate change and some Republican talks about, Yeah,
like, for example, now we're going from summer into fall and it's so stupid that you can tell it
takes three attempts to explain to the judge what the guy is saying because it's so dumb. Listen to.
Speaker 5: This. What I can tell you is that climate change is real. We've
got to do something about it. Yeah, this one. Speaker 3: We've got them, sir. So sorry. This
one's called Autumn right now. So. Yeah. Speaker 5: So I couldn't make out
what you said, sir. Speaker 3: This climate
change right now is called Autumn. Yes. Speaker 5: Yeah, that's. That's the
seasons changing, which respectively is not the same thing as the climate change.
Speaker 1: How could there possibly be climate change? Mayor Pete? Secretary Pete,
if in August it was hot and in September it's warm and in October it's brisk,
and then in November it's chilly. How is there a climate change, if that's the case? This is the
level on which these people are operating. And so this is why I'm actually working right now on the
chapter in my forthcoming book about how do you operate productively in the political system,
in a world where you can't even get consensus with these people on what the facts are? I'm not
saying we agree on the solution, but we could agree on the facts on climate change easily.
You would think, without necessarily agreeing on the solutions, we can then debate the solutions
these people don't even understand or refuse to acknowledge the facts. How do you operate
in such a world so that that's this is a perfect example of it. As well-prepared as you can be.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Wood, a judge, and he is good at this, but a really dark reminder
of the sad state of thinking and empiricism among the Republican Party. Truly a tragedy,
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