Former South Bend mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg may need to pack his bags. President-elect Joe Biden is considering nominating Buttigieg for a high-profile ambassadorship, possibly to China.
“A Buttigieg nomination would invert that model and give the Chinese an opportunity to get to know a potential future president,” Axios reports. “That happened with George H.W. Bush in 1974, when President Ford appointed him to the U.S. liaison office in Beijing.”
Buttigieg and Biden have an exceptionally strong relationship. The President-elect months ago said the former mayor, who was educated at Harvard and at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, reminded him of his late son Beau Biden.
“Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg’s future,” Axios adds, “since many inside the Democratic Party believe his return as a presidential candidate is a matter of when, not if.”
Buttigieg, who won the critical Iowa caucuses in the primaries, endorsed Biden back in March. Biden called Buttigieg, “a man who is not only brilliant, but is decent.”