Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is "completely unqualified" to handle the supply chain ''crisis," and even knows so himself, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted on Wednesday.
Cotton's comments come as the Biden administration scrambles to get the supply line caught up in time for holiday shopping, while warning that it may not happen. President Joe Biden has instituted a 24/7 effort to get cargo ships unloaded that are backed up at U.S. ports.
Critics have said it is impossible to hire enough workers, even with 24-hour shifts.
Meanwhile, Cotton's tweet accused Buttigieg of getting his Cabinet-level job simply because he endorsed Biden after his own attempt at the nomination failed.
"Pete Buttigieg is completely unqualified to handle the supply chain crisis. The only reason he's the Secretary of Transportation is because he endorsed Joe Biden. Even Pete knows it," Cotton tweeted.
Buttigieg once received help from Domino's Pizza to help fix potholes when he was mayor of South Bend, Indiana, according to Fox News.
"These challenges are definitely going to continue in the months and years ahead," Buttigieg told Bloomberg last week. "This is one more reason why we do need to deliver this infrastructure package, so that we can have a more resilient, flexible physical infrastructure to support our supply chain in this country."
But some Democrats, including moderate Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, fear inflation could worsen if the supply chain crisis is used to push through the $5 trillion spending bill, Breitbart News noted.
And Buttigieg's response to Democratic infighting over the issue appeared to come out of his days as a consultant rather than any real effort to solve the problem, Breitbart asserted.
"The White House set up a task force," he said on Oct. 7. "Look, this is obviously an incredibly complicated situation that we’re talking about."
"That’s why we’ve been convening all of the different players ... held roundtables, bringing together everyone connected to the ports," Buttigieg added.
Meanwhile, a trucker shortage is further complicating the situation.
"We’ve lost some guys to the pandemic, drivers," veteran truck driver Gerald Goldsby told DFW CBS. Unemployment benefits are making it look better to sit at home, he said.
"It’s just going to take time and getting more people in the workforce," he said.