The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge has presented Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with an opportunity to rehabilitate his image after being the target of Republican criticism for years over his performance.
“Today this is happening in Baltimore. Tomorrow it could be your district,” he said during a White House briefing Wednesday, making an appeal for bipartisanship in Congress. “We really need to stand together — red, blue, and purple — to get these things done.”
Six construction workers are believed to have died in the accident. Local authorities closed the bridge before it was struck Tuesday morning shortly after receiving a distress signal from the ship’s pilot. Buttigieg is now hoping to lead the way toward a successful rebuilding process amid a wobbly tenure atop the Department of Transportation.
“He’s got to pull his team together,” former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the Washington Examiner. “Everybody’s all hands on deck right now. He’s coordinating those meetings and getting everybody together, having conversations with the governor, with the mayor, with the county executive, with the White House.”
LaHood, who was transportation secretary during Barack Obama’s first term despite being a Republican, says he told Buttigieg he’d face a crisis every day in the job given the wide range of trains, plains, automobiles, watercraft, and infrastructure his department oversees. LaHood and Buttigieg still text each other on occasion.
“[I have] no criticism of his leadership at the DOT,” LaHood said. “When it comes to the situation in Baltimore and the bridge collapse, he’s really shown very, very strong leadership in many different areas. I give him very high marks.”
But not everyone does.
Buttigieg has led a rocky road since being named transportation secretary in February 2021 on the heels of a strong presidential campaign. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has since run into several controversies, at least in Republican-leaning circles.
The first came when it was reported in October 2021 that Buttigieg had been on paternity leave for six weeks amid a worsening supply chain crisis.
The leave had not been announced publicly, leading to criticism from conservatives. Buttigieg fired back, “What is really strange is that, you know, this is from a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family.”
A year later, reports surfaced amid commercial aviation delays that Buttigieg used a private jet to fly across the country at least 18 times. The department had also proposed emissions limits for cities earlier in 2022, leading to cries of hypocrisy.
And in early 2023, some Republicans called for Buttigieg to resign after a perceived slow response to a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Republican strategist John Feehery predicts Buttigieg will not recover politically.
“Instead of building bridges, he builds leftist narratives that don’t actually help move people and products, but help make a few gender study professors happy,” Feehery said. “The biggest challenge in getting this bridge rebuilt will come from the left, especially the labor unions, the environmental groups, and the race hustlers who always are looking for ways to make some money on the side.”
Buttigieg has been reaching out to conservative audiences in the days after the bridge collapse, appearing on Fox News for an interview.
“We’ve got to make sure we work now today to get this bridge back up and to get this port back open,” he said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom. “That bridge took five years to build. We don’t yet have an estimate on how long it will take to rebuild.”
Speaking before the White House press corps on Wednesday, Buttigieg detailed numbers and statistics about the situation: The ship weighed 200 million pounds and contained 4,700 cargo containers. Between $100 million and $200 million of cargo passes through the Baltimore port each day. There is $950 million in the bipartisan infrastructure law set aside for emergency relief.
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Democratic strategist Tom Cochran says Buttigieg has done an admirable role overall, and will continue to build momentum traversing the Baltimore situation.
“He’s done an excellent job so far in a very consequential role,” Cochran, a partner at 720 Strategies, said. “Without a doubt, this is his biggest test, and thus far, he has handled it well with the right messaging and talking points. More important is how federal, state, and local officials handle the investigation, the cleanup, and ultimately the long-term vision to rebuild the bridge.”
