Pete Buttigieg faces fresh lead­er­ship test with Bal­ti­more bridge col­lapse

The col­lapse of Baltimore’s Fran­cis Scott Key Bridge has pre­sent­ed Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Pete Buttigieg with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reha­bil­i­tate his image after being the tar­get of Repub­li­can crit­i­cism for years over his per­for­mance.
“Today this is hap­pen­ing in Bal­ti­more. Tomor­row it could be your dis­trict,” he said dur­ing a White House brief­ing Wednes­day, mak­ing an appeal for bipar­ti­san­ship in Con­gress. “We real­ly need to stand togeth­er — red, blue, and pur­ple — to get these things done.”
Six con­struc­tion work­ers are believed to have died in the acci­dent. Local author­i­ties closed the bridge before it was struck Tues­day morn­ing short­ly after receiv­ing a dis­tress sig­nal from the ship’s pilot. Buttigieg is now hop­ing to lead the way toward a suc­cess­ful rebuild­ing process amid a wob­bly tenure atop the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion.
“He’s got to pull his team togeth­er,” for­mer Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Ray LaHood told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er. “Everybody’s all hands on deck right now. He’s coor­di­nat­ing those meet­ings and get­ting every­body togeth­er, hav­ing co …