Former US transportation secretary targeted by false anonymous report involving his children
Joey Cappelletti
Washington: Former US transportation secretary and presumptive US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was the target of an anonymous report that police determined was false and that he said forced him to spend a night away from his four-year-old twins.
According to Buttigieg, a Michigan State Police officer and a child protective services worker arrived at his Traverse City home after receiving an anonymous report claiming he was a danger to his children. Authorities held forensic interviews for her twins and instructed her not to be alone with them until the interviews were completed.
Buttigieg recounted 24-hour ordeal a Substack post as “one of the darkest hours of my life.”
“I have been subjected to political attacks in office, death threats in public life, and rocket attacks in war. But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since the beginning of my military career,” the former soldier wrote.
“Everybody knows politics is ugly these days. It’s always been ugly, but now it’s more and more like a blood sport.”
Michigan State Police said in a statement to the AP that they received an “anonymous report” and that they and child protective services “responded and determined the report was false.”
Buttigieg said investigators told him the anonymous man claimed to have confessed to violent crimes during a chance meeting in Alabama years ago. Buttigieg said he never went to the town where the meeting allegedly took place.
He said police told him the allegation would not be forwarded to prosecutors and they believed the allegation was politically motivated, but Child Protective Services found nothing to substantiate the report.
“I cannot describe the mixture of anger and sadness I feel at the idea that someone has put our children in this situation,” Buttigieg wrote. “They’re four years old. They’re four years old. They don’t know what Democrat or Republican is, they don’t care.”
Buttigieg, a Democrat running for president in 2020, was the first openly gay cabinet secretary and is widely seen as a 2028 presidential candidate, has long weathered anti-LGBTQ attacks.
In recent years, conservative activists and some Republican officials have opposed efforts to portray gay parents as ordinary families in schools and public life.
Buttigieg has faced criticism from some Republicans for taking paternity leave after he and his wife, Chasten, adopted twin children while he served in the Biden administration.
He wrote that the incident occurred right after he posted photos of his family online for Father’s Day, which is celebrated in the United States at the end of June and is also known as Pride Month.
Buttigieg likened it to the practice of “swatting,” which is the act of making a false call to emergency services to ensure a response to a specific address. The goal is to get the authorities to show up, especially an armed SWAT team.
Public officials from across the political spectrum are increasingly the targets of swabbing. Law enforcement officials warned that the incidents diverted resources from other urgent tasks and posed a risk to both law enforcement and victims.
“This is the kind of cruel and dangerous hoax that has begun to happen more frequently in recent years,” Buttigieg wrote.
“Now imagine the same concept with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team. Never thought of that? Neither did I until a few days ago.”
