Pete Buttigieg: Time for Radical Change
7/14/20261 hr 14 min
Democrats tend to defend the institutions that Trump is tearing apart, but Pete Buttigieg says the party should be focusing on the bigger, deeper structural problems the country is facing and the need for political reform. The kind of radical institutional changes he’d like to see include: expanding SCOTUS and the House of Representatives, statehood for Washington, D.C., and directly electing the president by popular vote. Plus, Pete gets candid about the “most f*cked-up thing” that’s ever happened to his family, the big opportunity for Dems in Iowa in November, and Pete’s stumping for candidates in places where Fox News reigns.
Pete Buttigieg joined Tim Miller in Des Moines.
Show notes:
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List provided by Pete Buttigieg of candidates he has endorsed in the 2026 election cycle can be found in show notes in the below link:
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTim Miller· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to The Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller, coming at you from my old stomping grounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sunday evening. Uh, I was at the Liberty and Justice dinner, uh, put on by the Iowa Democratic Party. It was conveniently for me at Prairie Meadows Casino, where I spent a lot of time on the craps table back in my heyday. Uh, so it was nice to get back into town, and, uh, I was here to have a little chat with the keynote speaker at that dinner. I'm delighted to be able to sit down with him today. You might know him as the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, former Secretary of Transportation, Navy veteran, winner of the 2020 Democratic caucuses right here in Iowa. It's Pete Buttigieg. Hey, Pete. How's it going?
Pete Buttigieg· Guest0:56
I'm good. Thanks for having me.
Tim Miller· Host0:57
How was it on Sunday night?
Pete Buttigieg· Guest0:58
Great. Really good energy. Really-- It felt kind of like a reunion because there are all these, uh, uh, memories of, uh, uh, when I was here in 2020, but, uh, also I just really feel good about our chances in Iowa.
Tim Miller· Host1:09
Yeah. To me, it felt like even in the room, um, some of the Iowa Democrats have been depleted. You know, I j- I, I come, try to come back to Iowa every year. I got a lot of old friends here from my campaigns past, and I don't know. I went to an event in '24, and, you know, it's just Republicans have controlled the state for ten years, and, like, after a while, eventually you get beaten down. And it does--