Pete Buttigieg is firing back after he was targeted in false, anonymous report to the police.
In a new Substack published on Friday (June 26), the 44-year-old former Transportation Secretary revealed that was briefly separated from his 4-year-old twins, who he shares with husband Chasten Buttigieg, in what he described as a “cruel, politically motivated hoax.”
Buttigieg wrote that a Michigan State Police officer and a Child Protective Services worker came to his home and told him that there had been an allegation against him involving his twins. He was told a forensic interview had been arranged for his young children the next day, no family member could be present, and that he wouldn’t learn the nature of the allegations until after the interview were completed.
The CPS worker also instructed him not to be alone with his kids until after the interview, as the anonymous report alleged that he posed a danger to his children
“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life,” he wrote.
The following day, Buttigieg said that investigators told him that the anonymous caller claimed that he had confessed years earlier to “unspeakable violent crimes” to a woman he allegedly met at a conference in Alabama. Buttigieg told the investigators that he had never been to the town where this meeting allegedly occurred.
“The officer made clear that he believed this was politically motivated, and said it would not be referred to a prosecutor,” Buttigieg wrote. He said that the CPS worker also indicated that she had found nothing to substantiate the allegation, though the agency’s process would take longer to complete formally.
“I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this,” Buttigieg wrote. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is.”
“Even so, this is different,” he wrote. “My in-laws had to explain to my children, whom we have taught to avoid talking to strangers, that they would need to have a conversation, one at a time and for nearly an hour each, in a place they’d never been, with adults they did not know, who would ask questions we weren’t allowed to know either.”
He went on describe an escalating threat to public figures and their families, comparing this situation with his children to other people’s homes getting swatted, which is when someone makes a false emergency report intending to send armed police to a target’s home. In his case, the child welfare system was used instead.
“I’ll continue to stand up against the cruelty and corruption of the people in power today, and I’ll keep making the case for a better future in our country through a better kind of politics,” Buttigieg wrote. “We cannot let American politics keep going in this direction. And we must not all go on as if it’s acceptable for this kind of thing to be part of the cost of entering public service.”
In a statement to The Advocate, the Michigan State Police said that they received an “anonymous report” and that they and CPS “responded and determined the report was false.”
“The Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false,” Shanon Banner, director of the department’s Communications and Outreach Division, said in a statement. “False reports are dangerous and divert law enforcement officers and Child Protective Services workers from responding to legitimate emergencies and protecting vulnerable children and families.”
Buttigieg concluded his post by writing, “Chasten and I will continue to pour ourselves into the joyful and demanding work of raising and educating our two children. Being their parents is the best thing in our lives. They are just children, kids who deserve the best upbringing that their parents can provide, who mean more to us than anything, whom we love beyond words and will do anything to protect, and whose right to a safe and happy childhood deserves absolute and unconditional respect.”
Last year, Pete Buttigieg responded to the conspiracy theory started by Tucker Carlson that he’s not really gay.
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