Buttigieg tries to deflect from failures by attacking Tucker Carlson for being 'elitist'

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made an obvious attempt to deflect from his failures on liberal-friendly CNN on Sunday by attacking Fox News host Tucker Carlson for being "elitist."

He said:

It’s really rich to see some of these folks – the former president, these Fox hosts – who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country,” the Transportation Secretary said. “You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a T.J. Maxx and a Kohl’s?

Buttigieg couldn't even get his slam on Carlson right, though. He called the Fox host an "East Coast elitist" even though Carlson grew up in California.

He admitted that he should have gone to East Palestine, Ohio to help deal with a train derailment there, saying he didn't realize the extent of the political fallout he would face by not visiting the site.

He also said he didn't think most of the criticism he's gotten for that and other failures was warranted, however, because most of the things people blamed him for were out of his control.

He was on unannounced parental leave during a supply chain crisis and on vacation in Portugal when a rail strike seemed imminent.