Pete Buttigieg:
Well, let me take care, according to campaign rules, that I can’t get into campaigns and elections while I’m in a federal capacity today.
But what I will say is that, in addition to continuing to do good work, we have got to recognize that credit doesn’t give itself out. We need to continue making sure that we can connect the dots between a decision that was made in a big white building in Washington, D.C., and how your life is different, whether it’s what you’re paying for a dozen eggs or whether you have a safe way to get to work or what it’s like to be an airline passenger.
We have made a lot of major improvements on all of those fronts. I am certain that we are leaving every form of American transportation better than we found it. But there’s always more work to do. And, look, we’re in a — just a radically different information environment than we were in just a few years ago.
We have never had more information coming at us. And yet, in my lifetime, in many ways, we have never been less informed. The editorial function of helping to separate fact from fiction, helping to establish one of the most important things that a citizen deserves to know, that function is on its back feet right now in a world where some guy on the Internet can be treated like they have just as much credibility as somebody who is holding themselves to the highest ethical standards of journalism.
Sorting through that, I think, in many ways will be the project of our time. That matters not just politically, but societally, and certainly something that I hope to continue to be involved in, just as I have tried to use my time in this role not just to drive good policy work, but to help Americans understand what it means to them.
