Pete Buttigieg suffers worst possible Freudian slip on trip to crash site

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has left social media grimacing over his unfortunate choice of words while addressing his delayed 10-day response to the Ohio disaster.

Earlier this month, around 50 train cars derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio. Twenty of them were carrying hazardous materials, forcing locals within a mile radius of the disaster to be evacuated.

On Thursday (23 February), Buttigieg faced the press who served him an onslaught of questions.

When asked why he took so long to respond, Buttigieg said he "felt strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner" adding that he didn't want "process" to distract from "fundamental questions of rail safety regulation and accountability."

"What I tried to do was balance two things," he told reporters. "My desire to be involved and engaged and on the ground, which is how I am generally wired to act, and my desire to follow the norm of transportation secretaries, allowing NTSB to really lead the initial stages of the public-facing work."

Buttigieg continued: "I’ll do some thinking about whether I got that balance right."

At one point, Buttigieg responded with, what some have described as the ultimate Freudian slip, when he "lost his train of thought."

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Thousands of people picked up on the awkward blunder, with one slamming the "horrible choice of words." Another urged he "read the room."

A third wrote: "We’ve now wandered into the South Park realm of the multiverse…"

"Horrible choice of words for a Harvard/Yale graduate..tone deaf!"

Meanwhile, one tweeted: "Is this motherf***er trying to be funny?"

Indy100 reached out to Pete Buttigieg for comment.

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