Fox News host calls Pete Buttigieg “a cracker who only wants to racially divide the country further”
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From the February 10, 2023, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
JULIE BANDERAS (CO-HOST): Go, Pete! That was transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg last year claiming racism is built into some of America's roads — to justify $20 billion to address the problem, apparently. Well, now his department is making a similar play for our ports. He is announcing plans to dedicate more than $600 million in grant funding toward fixing them. Well, that sounds good, right? Oh no, there is a catch. It's only for, quote, “projects that address equity and environmental justice, particularly for communities that have experienced decades of underinvestment and are most impacted by climate change, pollution, and environmental hazards.” This is obviously the left politicizing, Kennedy, and using once again another woke agenda to basically punish those that don't believe the same rhetoric they are spewing. What does it say to those who are going to retire if they don't believe in this woke agenda then they get hurt after working 60-plus years? I mean, it is a slap in the face of any working American.
KENNEDY MONTGOMERY (FOX NEWS HOST): Well, it also doesn't address where problems specifically are. It is just this broad brush painted by a cracker who only wants to racially divide the country further. That is not necessary. He is not good at his job. He doesn't understand transportation. I don't think he understands infrastructure. He just speaks in slogans and they are empty, but he thinks they mean something. And he is doing a great disservice not only to communities of color but to the administration which he serves with empty, bland propaganda.
BANDERAS: Yeah, I mean, Emily, to pull the race card, Buttigieg is obviously taking a very big risk here. I still haven't figured out what qualified him to become a transportation secretary. I still haven't figured that out. Jimmy Failla as a former taxi driver I believe has more experience and has higher qualifications to become a transportation secretary. But to drag race into this is just really taking and stooping to an all new low. Because our roads are paved in racism, what does that even mean?
EMILY COMPAGNO (CO-HOST): My biggest issue with this is that this is an example of the inefficiency of government — most specifically of big government, which is what this administration is about. Think about what makes things slower? What makes things harder to do? It's red tape. It's regulations. And that is exactly what Buttigieg is putting on this. So note that applicants have to prove to the Department of Transportation how their project will include an equity assessment that evaluates whether a product will create proportional impacts and remove disparities to all populations in a project area. The list goes on. And they talk about how 40% of federal grants need to go to underserved communities, and I argue this is just putting more red tape around those underserved communities that deserve so much more.