CBS fact-checks Transportation Secretary over Joe Biden’s EV mandate that nobody wants.
CBS host Margaret Brennan called out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for defending Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.
Brennan showed a clip of former President Donald Trump recently slamming Biden’s EV mandate, saying, “We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing a car that nobody wants!”
Brennan added, “He’s not wrong on the purchasing.”
CBS plays a clip for Pete Buttigieg of President Trump slamming Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate: “We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing a car that nobody wants!”
MARGARET BRENNAN: “He’s not wrong.”
BUTTIGIEG: “Oh, he’s wrong.”
BRENNAN: “He’s not.” pic.twitter.com/kbnGbAmoS9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 26, 2024
But Buttigieg insisted, “Oh, he’s wrong.”
Brennan pushed back. “He’s not,” she said.
“Of the 4 million vehicles purchase, 269,000 vehicles were sold in the U.S. market,” she noted.
Buttigieg said that EV sales are increasing every year, but didn’t address why car manufacturers were slashing production of EVs over low demand in 2024.
Brennan also laughed in Buttigieg’s face when he struggled to explain why only 7-8 charging stations have been built despite the Biden administration spending $7.5 billion in 2021 to build them.
WATCH: CBS’s Margaret Brennan laughs in Pete Buttigieg’s face when he is unable to explain why only 7 or 8 electric vehicle charging stations have been built despite the Biden admin spending $7.5 BILLION to build chargers. pic.twitter.com/BmFK17Dk5O
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 26, 2024
Many consumers cite charging hassles, weather limitations and the high cost as reasons to hold off on EV purchases, and are instead looking more toward hybrid vehicles.
US auto dealers representing every major auto brand also called on the Biden administration last year to roll back its federal regulations that will mandate two out of every three vehicles sold in the US in 2032 will be battery electric, because most consumers just aren’t interested.
“We can take some solace in knowing that the voice of our customers broke through enough to convince the Biden Administration to moderate the mandate in the early years,” the letter states. “But sadly the regulation stubbornly hangs on to an EV mandate that is clearly disconnected from the realities of the marketplace and the voice of the customer.”
