Blaze Media CEO and podcast host Glenn Beck called out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for his wildly manipulative remarks on his boss’s insane electric vehicle push.
During the April 3 edition of Glenn Beck TV, Beck tore into Buttigieg for ignoring the devastating effects of President Joe Biden’s authoritarian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation against gas-powered cars.
Buttigieg had shamelessly claimed during a Fox News interview that the auto industry was naturally moving towards EVs and compared gasoline vehicles to landline phones, to which Beck retorted: “He says the automotive sector is moving away from combustion engines. No, they are not, they’re not. The people are not and it’s the government pushing them into that direction. And the people are saying, ‘I don’t want that.’” Beck is right on target, polls show.
Only 30% of Americans support phasing out gas-powered vehicles and even fewer (21%) support restrictions on gas-powered vehicles, according to a 2023 Yahoo Finance/Ipsos poll. The poll made clear that breaking down the results by education and age still showed a consistent majority against both ideas. Similarly, a 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 59% of voters opposed phasing out gas-powered cars.
No, Pete Buttigieg. The automotive sector isn’t “moving toward” EVs and away from gas cars like we did from landline phones. The government is FORCING the industry to move away. pic.twitter.com/hVxVtR10NL
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) April 3, 2024
Beck’s withering response followed a series of absurd claims from Buttigieg on the April 2 edition of Fox News’ America Reports. “Let’s be clear that the automotive sector is moving towards EVs and we can’t pretend otherwise. Sometimes when these debates happen, I feel like it’s the early 2000s and I’m talking to some people who think we can just have landline phones forever,” Buttigieg said.
On his podcast, Beck scorched Buttigieg for this dumb comparison. “It’s not like they were pushing cell phones and everyone was like, ‘Oh I gotta, I mean it's just getting crazy to have a cell phone, I don’t really have a choice soon.’ It's not like even incandescent light bulbs,” Beck said. “We went to the cellular service because everyone started having it.”
Buttigieg went on to suggest during his interview that the nation’s national security depended on a quick transition to electric vehicles, claiming: “The reality is that the automotive sector is moving towards EVs and the U.S. can either fall behind China or we can claim the lead.” He must have missed The Wall Street Journal reporting from two days before his interview detailing how the U.S. electrical grid will become more vulnerable to enemy exploitation as the infrastructure to support electric cars is expanded.
Beck wasn’t the only one to call out Buttigieg for his out-of-touch remarks.
On the April 3 edition of The Big Money Show on Fox Business, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) also condemned Buttigieg’s deception. “This is another example of the American liberals and their agenda pushing this. Anytime the federal government picks winners and losers consumers are going to lose,” Rep. Carter said. “That's what is happening now with the administration trying to pick winners and losers, trying to force people to buy EVs. The Secretary of Transportation making a mockery out of this and the American people and I take offense to that and I think a lot of Americans take offense to that. We don't need to be told what we need to buy,” he continued.
MRC Business Associate Editor Joseph Vazquez contributed to this report.
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