- Pete Buttigieg tried to deflect criticism away from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
- Manchin has been a frequent obstacle to Biden's domestic agenda, but the White House is trying to soothe tensions.
- "If somebody is holding out on you, going up to them and poking them in the eye is probably not gonna help you," Buttigieg said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sought to downplay any lasting White House beef with Sen. Joe Manchin on Friday. It's another sign of how the Biden administration is trying to once again woo the West Virginia Democrat who has repeatedly thwarted President Joe Biden's agenda.
"If somebody is holding out on you, going up to them and poking them in the eye is probably not gonna help you get the result you want," Buttigieg said on "The Breakfast Club" on Friday morning.
Charlamagne tha God, one of the show's co-hosts, repeatedly pressed Buttigieg on why the White House isn't doing more to push Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to get behind Biden's plans. Charlamagne tha God emphasized that if Donald Trump was still president "Trump would have had a million names for Manchin and Sinema already."
"That didn't really get him his way either," Buttigieg responded. "It got him attention. It got us all talking about it, but did it really help move an agenda?"
Buttigieg's comments come as Democrats seem poised to renew talks with Manchin about Biden's domestic agenda for what could be the last time. The Democratic holdout has floated a summer deadline to pass a slimmer social and climate spending bill without committing to it.
Manchin was coy on whether he was up to strike an agreement after the Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. "We'll just see if there's a pathway forward," he told reporters on Tuesday. "We don't know if there's a pathway forward yet."
Biden and Manchin have had an at-times testy relationship. Manchin, according to one of his closest friends, was not happy with a December White House statement that singled him out by name. Days later, Manchin went on Fox News and effectively killed Biden's sweeping climate and spending plan.
The Washington Post later reported that Manchin was also furious with White House chief of staff Ron Klain and privately vented about staffers pushing Biden to be more liberal than he really wanted to be.
In an evenly split Senate, Biden cannot afford to lose Manchin's support in the face of what is often unanimous Republican opposition. Buttigieg also pointed out that Manchin, Sinema, and 19 Senate Republicans worked with the administration to pass Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan.
"You're talking about one senator, a senator by the way from a state that Donald Trump won by like 40 points, and we should be talking about 100 senators," Buttigieg said. "There's 99 other senators. And there has been unified, uniform, Republican opposition to so many of these things we're trying to do like on the voting like extending the child tax credit."