Educator and activist Chasten Buttigieg called out Fox News for their past treatment of his husband, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, after new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy brought two of his kids aboard Air Force One to join President Donald Trump at the Daytona 500.
Chasten Buttigieg shared a video of Duffy proudly showing off that he and his kids were about to board Air Force One.
Buttigieg remarked:
“I remember when Fox News absolutely melted when a certain Secretary took a family member on a presidential delegation. Let’s see how this one plays out."
You can see his post below.
Chasten Buttigieg referenced a 2023 interview in which Fox News anchor Brett Baier suggested Pete Buttigieg had been failing to perform his job duties by including Chasten as part of an official delegation to the Netherlands for the Fifth Invictus Games.
Baier questioned Pete Buttigieg about his travel schedule after a calendar obtained by the nonpartisan Americans for Public Trust (APT) and shared with Fox News Digital showed he'd traveled from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Rotterdam, Netherlands via "MilAir Flight" in April 2022 before returning two days later on military aircraft.
At the time, Pete Buttigieg said Baier put “quite a spin” on the trip to the games—an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans—which often are visited by U.S. government officials and their respective spouses.
Many also called this out.
Pete Buttigieg's high profile as a gay man in one of the government's top positions forced him to respond to attacks against him, his sexuality, his relationship with his husband, and the fact they have children.
Chasten Buttigieg has typically made headlines for pushing back against conservative criticisms, including when he criticized Fox News for suggesting his husband was in the wrong when he refused to take a call from a Republican lawmaker while he was on paternity leave following the birth of their twins.
The pushback against the ex-Transportation Secretary's decision to take paternity leave has long served as the basis for homophobic and sexist smears, particularly from Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert who accused him of using the birth of his children as an excuse not to address the COVID-19-related supply chain crisis.
In 2023, Chasten Buttigieg said he is "starting to think the RNC thinks about my family more than our closest relatives" after the organization shared a clip of his husband saying that "we drive a Pacifica" and that he "never thought I was gonna be a minivan person, and then we had kids."
