NPR was slammed for a tweet suggesting Pete Buttigieg is qualified to serve as the nation’s transportation secretary because he enjoyed taking train rides in college and proposed to his husband in an airport terminal.
“Pete Buttigieg, President-elect Biden’s pick for transportation secretary, said he has ‘a personal love of transportation,’ recounting train trips on Amtrak while in college, and said he proposed to his now-husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal,” the NPR Politics tweet reads.
Commenters immediately slammed the tweet, asking if it was satire and compared it to how the media treated the Trump administration in 2016.
“2016 media: Trump is bringing in too many people with private sector resumes, they can’t possibly do government jobs, this is a threat to democracy,” conservative talk radio show host Buck Sexton said in response. “2020 media: OMG Mayor Pete likes train trips he should totally be transportation secretary! Yaaaas!”
2016 media: Trump is bringing in too many people with private sector resumes, they can’t possibly do government jobs, this is a threat to democracy
2020 media: OMG Mayor Pete likes train trips he should totally be transportation secretary! Yaaaas! https://t.co/113lmkNutW
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) December 17, 2020
Others joined Sexton in mocking or condemning the tweet.
NPR: So, why should you be Secretary of Transportation?
Buttigieg: I love choo-choos and planes that fly!
NPR: Good enough for us! https://t.co/VrnJXCaS7L— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 17, 2020
This is just embarrassing https://t.co/c7gUbYFm7Q
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 17, 2020
Did @TheBabylonBee write this?
— John Gage (@johnrobertgage) December 16, 2020
I have a *personal* love of fishing and hunting. Therefore, I can be Interior Secretary one day? Got it. https://t.co/B7arKDpCjb
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) December 17, 2020
Well then I’m thoroughly qualified to be Secretary of Treasury. https://t.co/JQVR9ZO9Gd
— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) December 17, 2020
Interviewer: “Mr. Walsh, you’re applying to be a chef at this four star restaurant. What are your qualifications?”
Me: “Well I have, on several occasions in my life, eaten food. Also I went to Applebee’s last Tuesday.” https://t.co/8dBKT4gM57
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) December 17, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden announced he was nominating Buttigieg as transportation secretary this week, lauding him as the perfect candidate to fill the position “because it is the intersection of some of the most ambitious plans to build back better.”
The NPR story cited in the outlet’s tweet reported that Buttigieg “said he has ‘a personal love of transportation,’ recounting 1,000-mile-long train trips on Amtrak while in college, and said he proposed to his now-husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal. ‘Don’t let anyone tell you O’Hare isn’t romantic,’ he joked.”
NPR did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the backlash.
