Into the lion's den: Pete Buttigieg goes head-to-head with MAGA darling

Pete Buttigieg, who served as Secretary of Transportation under Joe Biden, had some advice for Democratic Party leaders before the 2026 midterms.

Buttigieg appeared on comedian Andrew Schulz's "Flagrant" podcast — known for its part in the pro-Trump manosphere — where he called out Republicans for not having any answers to some of the most pressing issues of our time.

In a promo for the podcast on X, Schulz described Buttigieg as the "future president."

"They don't have an answer. Their answer is, 'burn it all down,'" Buttigieg told Schulz. "If we haven't solved poverty, their answer is to slash Medicaid, which is what the Republican budget moving through Congress right now will do is slash Medicaid."

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Buttigieg continued, "Medicaid may not be perfect...I know for a fact many issues come up in the way it's administered, the way people have access to it. But I also know for a fact that if your answer to that is just to cut out a bunch of poor people — or VA, like any veteran can tell you the horror stories of all the times things didn't go right in dealing with the VA.

"But, if you think the answer is to just cut it, or just privatize it, that's not an answer. We can do better than that. And I think my party's job is to make clear what that looks like and how we would do it better."

Buttigieg also posted an article to his Substack titled, "Why I Sat Down for a Two-Hour Podcast That Recently Hosted Trump," concluding that "going everywhere means seeking out audiences that may have never heard our message at all."

Some on the left took issue with Buttigieg appearing for an hours-long interview with a pro-MAGA host, but Democratic strategist Mike Nellis posted that Dems could learn a thing or two from Buttigieg's efforts.

"Anybody mad about Pete Buttigieg going on Andrew Schulz's podcast is not serious about winning elections," Nellis wrote. "You have to meet people where they are—not expect them to come to you. The question you should be asking is why your favorite Democrat isn't going into the lion's den and defending our values?"

Watch the Flagrant podcast with Pete Buttigieg here.