GOP congressman praises Buttigieg for helping 'tone down the rhetoric in D.C.'

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) wants to give Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg credit for his work during negotiations over President Biden's infrastructure proposal. "Any one of my colleagues who says that we can't work with Secretary Buttigieg just because he ran for president as a Democrat, I don't think understands the importance of bipartisanship when it comes to transportation-infrastructure investment," Davis told The Atlantic.

Davis, who is considered a moderate Republican, said he and other GOP lawmakers have been impressed with how often Buttigieg reaches out to them and his willingness to listen. It's "an understatement" to say the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has more of a working relationship with Congress than other Biden Cabinet members, Davis said. And even though the two sides remain far apart on several key components of the proposal, Davis told The Atlantic, "that doesn't mean that the outreach and his personalization and relationship-building has not helped to tone down the rhetoric in D.C. and begin to hopefully get us back to some bipartisan agreement." Read more at The Atlantic.