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Pete Buttigieg: “If we could get Washington to begin to work a little more…”

Featuring: Pete Buttigieg, Democratic | Former Secretary of Transportation, Former Mayor of South Bend | National

Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Published March 10, 2026 | Video Starts at 54:34

You're dealing with the humanity of the people who need each other and are in each other's way. But it's also government at its best. And If we could get Washington to begin to work a little more like our best run cities and towns... our country would be, I think, much better off. So good. So good. So good. So good. So everybody. I feel extremely blessed to work with the council that gets it. (54:34–54:43)

CLAIM

Asserts that federal governance would improve by emulating effective local governance.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Pete Buttigieg

“We, as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, provided the biggest investment in transit in the history of the country.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 26:50-26:59
“This country has changed its constitution 29 times through the amendment process.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:04:23-1:04:28
“I also believe in moments like that...so much of our salvation will actually be coming from the local.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 13:16-13:32
“Of the 14 and a half million federal dollars that we brought to make investments on 4th Avenue, which we're very proud to do.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 14:10-14:17
“The federal minimum wage has unquestionably reduced poverty and contributed to a better economy.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 17:38-17:50
“The states that have their state level minimum wage higher than that federal floor tend to do better.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 17:56-18:08
“You could get health insurance on your own even if you had a pre-existing condition.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 22:33-22:38
“Federal policies have at every turn made it harder to be a business owner.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 23:25-23:36
“Our level of trust in our government, whether it's high or whether it's low, affects whether that government can function.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 33:19-33:27
“Immigration law exists for a reason. Most of us think just about all of us understand the idea that a country needs to have borders, that…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 34:00-34:10
“They also thought they were voting for a government that would find someone who was dangerous, who was a violent criminal, who had…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 34:13-34:25
“There is a yawning gap between the level of immigration our economy requires and the level of immigration our government permits.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 36:46-37:20
“There can be not just less illegal but more legal immigration at the same time.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 37:14-37:20
“This is not just a policy of being cruel toward undocumented immigrants.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 40:24-40:29
“This is a policy that says every one of you, every one of us at any given moment has to prove that we're a citizen.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 40:28-40:40
“It's not too much to ask that if we're going to give somebody life or death powers walking the streets of an American city that they be…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 41:34-41:43
“We need to make it easier to build in the first place. And there's a lot of reforms, many of them at the state and local levels, that can…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 42:47-42:54
“We also have to make it easier to get federal dollars to worthy projects that are going to make it more affordable and more possible to…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 42:53-43:02
“Land banking has become a strategy I think, has shown a lot of results and a lot of promise.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 44:24-44:29
“Federal and state policy ought to be empowering you to pursue whoever it is [absentee landlords].”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 45:26-45:38
“If the federal government wants to track the whereabouts of every immigrant in this country, surely it can help you track the absentee…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 45:26-45:38
“Traditional forms like print media and broadcast media have an obligation to present multiple sides of a story.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 51:04-51:09
“If they [traditional media] were to report something inaccurately, we could call them and they would change it because they adhere to…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 51:10-51:19
“Some dude on Instagram gets to command as much audience and as much authority [as professional journalists].”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 51:44-51:51
“The algorithm... its job is not to make sure that we are presented with information we need to see. Its job is just to keep us scrolling.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 52:14-52:32
“At the local level, you can't torch somebody just because you disagreed with them.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 53:45-53:49
“Two thirds of Americans think that it is the wealthy who need to be paying their fair share in taxes.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:00:41-1:00:47
“Two thirds of Americans are aligned around the idea that workers ought to be paid more and ought to get better benefits.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:00:53-1:01:01
“At least 2/3 of Americans think we ought to do more, expect more of our government to make sure that everybody gets health care that is…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:01:00-1:01:10
“When it comes to background checks, just universal background checks on guns, 80% of the majority of Republicans, the majority of gun owners…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:01:40-1:01:46
“The contours of the grand bargain have 2/3 support in this country. More lawful immigration, less unlawful immigration, and a pathway to…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:01:52-1:02:02
“The Electoral College, which says that, and I love Georgia, but says that if you're in Georgia, you matter for presidential politics, but if…”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:02:37-1:02:48
“We ought to do something about a Supreme Court that has frustrated the intention of the American people.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:03:26-1:03:36
“The Supreme Court says that a corporation is the same thing as a person and money in campaigns is the same thing as speech.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:03:57-1:04:04
“We once changed our Constitution so you couldn't get a beer. And then after a while we said, this is terrible, and we changed it back.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:04:37-1:04:45
“We need communicators who can build bridges, communicators who are unafraid to go into conservative spaces.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:05:24-1:05:31
“A lot of things have to change in the way this country is run, in the way our economy works, our politics, our society.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:06:51-1:06:56
“There was a time when there were mass federal agents in the streets in American cities.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:14:32-1:14:38
“Even people who worked full time at a job and were good at that job could not afford to put a roof over their heads.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:14:54-1:15:03
“Back in the 2020s there were people going bankrupt because they couldn't afford health care.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:15:07-1:15:12
“The funding that was going into education was abysmal.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:15:19-1:15:22
“They actually tore down the Department of Education itself.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:15:21-1:15:25
“We saw artificial intelligence coming our way, and we saw the risk that came with it.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:15:44-1:15:49
“We made the policy choices, the tough policy choices, so that the result of that was less of a work week and more money in your pocket.”
Community Conversation between Mayor Randall Woodfin and Secretary Pete Buttigieg | Uploaded March 10, 2026 | 1:15:50-1:15:58