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Pete Buttigieg shades Donald Trump's incoherent child care proposal

Pete Buttigieg Donald Trump
Jeremy Bustin Photography via Shutterstock; Lev Radin/Shutterstock

After Trump was asked about child care last week, Buttigieg said "it wasn’t clear whether he even understood the question."

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Pete Buttigieg isn't just calling out Donald Trump's lackluster child care policies — he's questioning his mental fitness.

The out Secretary of Transportation criticized the former president's "very unpopular set of policies and record" on Sunday's episode of CNN’s State of The Union with Dana Bash, zeroing in on Trump's incomprehensible solution to the widespread unavailability of affordable child care.

When the former president was asked Thursday during an appearance at the Economic Club of New York if he would commit “to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable," he instead went on an incoherent rant in which he said he would astronomically raise tariffs to cover the cost.

“I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, because child care is child care, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it,” Trump said. “But when you talk about those numbers compared to the type of numbers I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to, but they’ll get used to it very quickly.”

Buttigieg noted that vice president Kamala Harris "has a plan for expanding the Child Tax Credit, making sure that we have paid family leave in this country," pointing out that those are "two things we would have right now if Republicans weren’t blocking them." He then referenced Trump's bizarre response, hinting at the former president's seeming decline in energy and capability.

"And as we saw when Donald Trump was asked about child care the other day, it wasn’t clear whether he even understood the question,” Buttigieg said.

"[Harris] has laid out an agenda: things like making sure our tax code is fair, and protecting a woman's right to choose," he continued. "That is, of course, the opposite of Donald Trump's agenda, which has been around tax cuts for the wealthy and his record of destroying the right to choose."

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Ryan Adamczeski

Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.