Pete Buttigieg talks about Kamala Harris' strategy for victory

Pete Buttigieg rose to prominence ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when he was mayor of his native South Bend, Indiana. He sought the Democratic nomination for president before dropping out and endorsing eventual victor Joe Biden.

He became Biden's transportation secretary in 2021, and was in the mix to be Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate before she chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in early August.

On Thursday, the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Buttigieg sat down with ABC News’ Linsey Davis to talk about his experience with Harris, her engagement with the media and how Democrats in the battleground state of Michigan reacted to her candidacy. This interview happened before Harris' speech on Thursday.

ABC NEWS: Secretary, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Obviously, a big night of crescendos here with Kamala Harris accepting the nomination as the Democratic president of the United States. What are you expecting to hear from her tonight?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, I think she's going to lay out a vision for the future of this country. She's going to remind Americans of the difference between what the future will look like with a president like her, who is focused on all of us, versus going backwards in time to a president like Donald Trump, who is focused only on himself.

I also think there's going to be enormous energy here in the hall and around the country, and I'm hoping that energy will be something that we can bottle up, because she will likely also remind us that this is an underdog campaign in many ways, that it's a race against time, that we're going to have to earn every vote and every inch of ground.

And I imagine, based on how she's been reminding all of our party to think about that, that she's going to call on us to bottle up that energy, take it with us, and get the hard work done over the next 11 weeks or so.

ABC NEWS: As transportation secretary, you've obviously worked with her closely over the last three and a half years. What would you be able to tell us about her leadership style?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, even though, being here, I can't speak as, in the capacity of my federal job. What I can say, as I've come to know her personally, working with her and seeing her on the trail. She is smart. She is focused. I think those same attributes that made her a very effective prosecutor and a very effective vice president are going to make her a very effective president.

I think back to when I had the privilege of participating in her debate preparations to get ready for debating Mike Pence, always challenging us as we were kicking around ideas and laying out statistics and proposals and ideas she might want to talk about in the debate, always challenging us to take it back to how everyday people are going to be affected by it.

And that's the kind of focus that I think we really need in the White House right now, especially with everything Americans are still up against: the struggle against rising costs, the questions over what our future is going to be like. We need that kind of discipline as well as her remarkable intellect.

ABC NEWS: Part of this convention has been about getting to know her as a person, not the politician. Do you have an anecdote that you might be able to share that speaks to a personal side of Kamala Harris?

BUTTIGIEG: You know, one of the most moving moments that I've experienced was when Chasten [Buttigieg, his husband] and I were sworn in, to, to my current position. She did the honors. She swore us in. And just as we were about to go -- and who knows how many people she was swearing in that day, it was the middle of the early days of the administration, things were moving so quickly -- She pulled us both aside and just said "Remember the moment here and take a second to be present for this, because otherwise it'll go by very quickly."

And I'm so glad she did. Because it allowed me to take a mental snapshot of everything that was happening in what was an enormous moment in our lives, and, and had a historic quality to it as well. And, I just think that that reflects that even in the midst of going through all kinds of official motions and going through very intense days as vice president, she wanted to engage people as humans.

ABC NEWS: Something similar, we heard her share with Tim Walz last night in the video "Enjoy this moment." When you introduced yourself last night, you said "I'm Pete Buttigieg. You might recognize me from Fox News." As you know, there has been some criticism that in her now-month running for president, that she hasn't done any interviews, that she hasn't had a press conference. Do you think that that's fair criticism?

BUTTIGIEG: I think she's going to engage the media a great deal. Obviously, in recent days and weeks, she's been focused on consolidating the party and preparing for the convention. But she's committed that she will have those engagements. And I think when we do, the difference that we're going to see is that in those interviews, she's actually going to tell the truth.

Donald Trump tells so many lies and falsehoods in a given interview or media availability, that it's not even newsworthy anymore. And, I think, people have almost gotten used to it, inured to it, which is not healthy.

I mean, the fact that he claimed he was in a helicopter crash with [former San Francisco mayor] Willie Brown, and that wasn't even something that gave most people pause, kind of tells you what we're at in terms of expectations on his side. I think when she engages with reporters more than just the individual one-off questions she's occasionally been answering on the trail and some of those other engagements that she's committed to do, that'll be the big difference. One of the candidates -- her -- will be telling the truth.

ABC NEWS: Of course, you're a long-time Indiana resident but now moved to the battleground state of Michigan. Knowing the voters, hearing what is top of mind concern for them. What do you think that a Harris-Walz campaign will have to do in order to sway some of those undecided?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, I think it's important for her to demonstrate the difference in economic focus. Remind Michiganders and people across the country that the only economic policy promise that Donald Trump kept was the one about cutting taxes for the rich. He didn't bother to keep other promises he made, like 6% economic growth or his promise to pass a big infrastructure bill, right? The Biden-Harris administration did that, Donald Trump failed to do that.

So there's an economic message, and then there's this freedom message, that is related to economic freedoms, but also related to the fact that the only other promise that Donald Trump kept was his promise to demolish the right to choose in this country. She is, of course, a defender of a woman's right to choose.

Those issues, I think, are going to activate a lot of people in Michigan. Just after she became our candidate, Chasten and I went down to the field office nearest to our home in Michigan, felt an extraordinary amount of energy and people really with those issues, among others, of course, but those issues really top of mind.

ABC NEWS: Secretary Buttigieg, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you joining us.

BUTTIGIEG: Thank you.