Former top senior campaign aid for Buttigieg says she’s ‘Biden 2024’

A former senior adviser for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s campaign said on Wednesday that she’s firmly in the current commander in chief’s corner if he runs for reelection.

“I am Biden 2024 — but I’m Pete for anything else,” Democratic strategist Lis Smith told ITK on Tuesday.

“And I would be lying if I said I didn’t one day want to see Pete to be president,” Smith added.

A University of New Hampshire Survey Center Granite poll released earlier this month found that 17 percent of those surveyed would choose Buttigieg among a list of Democrats, or those who caucus with Democrats, who are considered possible 2024 presidential contenders, while 16 percent chose Biden.

But Smith, who headed up communications strategy during Buttigieg’s 2020 White House bid, heaped praise on the president: “I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how much you hate Joe Biden, but you cannot deny that the guy has racked up more wins in the last few weeks than like the Patriots did in like f—ing four seasons.”

ITK caught up with Smith at a Washington, D.C., insider-packed rooftop party at Hotel Hive in Washington to celebrate the release of her new book, “Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story.”

Smith, sporting her signature oversized sunglasses and a hot pink ensemble on the sizzling summer night, explained that her goal was to have her book serve as “a model for future political operatives.”

“I wrote it for the 18-year-old girl that I was when I got involved, and started to look to get involved, in politics for the first time when I was in college. There was no guidebook for me,” the straight-shooting comms operative said.

“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, or someone who’s completely apolitical at all and detests politics, you cannot deny that politics touches every part of our lives,” Smith, 39, told the crowd.

“We saw that with COVID with public officials, public policy decisions, “ Smith continued. “We saw that with the recent [Supreme Court] Dobbs decision. And what I wanted to do is to write a book for that 18-year-old girl that I was, to demystify it and say, ‘Read this, see what it’s like, get involved and f—ing kick ass. ‘”

Among those eyed feting Smith were: former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Stephanie Cutter, Tammy Haddad, Steve Clemons, Robert Costa, Molly Ball, George Conway, Doug Heye, former Jill Biden press secretary Michael LaRosa, Adrienne Elrod, Janet Donovan, Virginia Coyne, Matthew Hiltzik, David Chalian, Kevin Cirilli, Josh Dawsey, Bob Barnett, Chris Licht, Ashley Parker, Jayne Sandman, Matt Dornic, Jesse Rodriguez, Juleanna Glover, Betsy Fischer Martin and Jonathan Martin, Kris Coratti Kelly, Kristin Cecchi, Jeff Dufour, Alex Slater, Matt Glassman and Chris Meagher.

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