(CNN)Pete Buttigieg wasn't quite feeling it.
It was late and White House aides had given him the cryptic guidance during their prep call for his Sunday show appearances on July 24: "We're not taking any swings."
That last weekend in July, the transportation secretary was -- like most Democrats -- still reeling from the latest death of a reconciliation bill tackling climate change that he and so many others had hoped for. The potential loss of the electric vehicles tax credits he had worked on most closely, and the bigger goals like carbon emissions cuts had Buttigieg feeling dejected, despondent.