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After 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley pressed the founders of the far-right organization Moms for Liberty on their use of the word "groomer," educator and activist Chasten Buttigieg—the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—called out their ignorant antics.
Moms for Liberty was founded by Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, two Florida Republican women who ran for school board seats and gained notoriety for railing against COVID-19 restrictions in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.
The duo and their supporters have falsely alleged that members of the LGBTQ+ community have been "grooming" children and pushed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in many conservative states based on these lies.
Throughout the conversation, Justice and Descovich avoided Pelley's questions, consistently sticking to their rehearsed talking points, even when those points appeared unrelated to the broader context of the interview.
As an illustration, when addressing concerns about "rogue teachers in America's classrooms" accused of "indoctrinating children into ideology," Descovich responded vaguely, stating, "Let's just say children in America cannot read." After Pelley displayed messages from their organization on X that accused people of "grooming" without evidence, Justice said parents do not want to "co-parent with the government."
And when Pelley noted that "grooming" is not a word any organization "would want to take on," Justice flipped through a stack of papers and issued a weak defense, saying Moms for Liberty had done polling into how Americans feel "on the issue of parental rights and what’s happening in our schools."
Chasten Buttigieg quickly took note of this and pointed out just how unprepared Descovich and Justice were to be challenged during the interview:
"They literally have to look at printed talking points."
You can see his post below.
Many echoed his criticisms.
Pelley's 60 Minutes report—which included voiceovers noting that "in a tactic of outrage politics, Moms for Liberty takes a kernel of truth and concludes these examples are not rare mistakes but a plot to sexualize children"—also highlights the electoral setbacks experienced by Moms for Liberty.
Despite spirited campaigning, two-thirds of the 166 school board candidates endorsed by the group were unsuccessful in the 2023 elections.
The group provided endorsements to numerous candidates across school districts spanning from Alaska to North Carolina. However, its history of supporting book bans, resisting racially inclusive educational content, and promoting anti-LGBTQ+ messages failed to resonate with voters across multiple elections.