Pete Buttigieg and his kids were targeted by child services swatting call: Police
"For God’s sake, they are just kids," Buttigieg wrote about the incident.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a high-profile Democratic Party figure and a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, said on Friday that authorities were called on his house over false allegations, in what he said seemed to be an effort to target him politically. It temporarily led to him being separated from his two children.
Buttigieg, who is openly gay and has become among the Democratic Party’s highest-profile LGBTQ rights advocates, wrote that he feels "rage and sadness" over how someone involved his 4-year-old twins in something like this, but implied it may have been rooted in homophobia and also meant to target him and his family.
"They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is. They don’t know how politics works. They don’t know about hate. They should be worrying about what kind of ice cream they’re getting this afternoon, not why they are being brought into a meeting with a grownup asking strange questions or why their Papa is suddenly unavailable to read them a bedtime story. For God’s sake, they are just kids," Buttigieg wrote in a blog post published Friday.
Buttigieg wrote that "a few days ago," a Child Protective Services worker and a police officer came to his home in Traverse City, Michigan, and said an allegation had been made against him related to his 4-year-old twins, and that his children would need to be interviewed without him present. After that he would be interviewed.
He said he was also told he could not be around the children unsupervised until the interview -- and the children would have to be interviewed without any family present. Buttigieg said he and his husband, Chasten, arranged for the children to stay with grandparents.
"The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life. I tried to get my head around the idea that I had been accused of something so serious that I couldn’t be alone around my own children, and had consented to have them interviewed by strangers, without my knowing where the accusation had come from or even what it contained," Buttigieg wrote.
"Many times over the years, I have been denounced, yelled at, protested, threatened, and heckled. I’ve been through political attacks in office, death threats in public life, and rocket attacks in war," the military veteran added. "But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began."
Buttigieg wrote that he later found out from police while being interviewed that someone who claimed to have met him at a conference had said that Buttigieg had told her he had "committed unspeakable violent crimes," and so that his children were at risk.
He added that both police and CPS appeared to find the allegations unsubstantiated, and that he was soon allowed again to be around his children unsupervised.
Michigan State Police confirmed that the anonymous report from the person was false.
"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," Michigan State Police said in a statement.
Buttigieg praised the police and CPS officials as "courteous and professional," writing that they and the interviewers "were just following procedure and doing their jobs - admirable jobs that must be incredibly difficult every day, protecting the most vulnerable children from the most horrible threats ... their time and resources were wasted in a cruel, politically motivated hoax that harmed our family."
Buttigieg, during his time in President Joe Biden's White House, moved to his husband's hometown of Traverse City, Michigan.
"Everyone knows politics is ugly these days. It’s always been ugly, but now it feels more and more like bloodsport. Cruelty, lies, and even deadly violence have been directed at political figures across the ideological spectrum. Generally everyone agrees this has to stop, even as our country (and public figures) get all too used to it,” Buttigieg wrote. "Even so, this is different... Now our family is left to deal with the aftermath. I worry about any unseen effects this had on our kids, on Chasten and me, and on the rest of our family."
He later added, “I don’t know who did this, or exactly what prompted them to try. It’s not lost on me that this happened soon after we shared photos of our family on social media for Father’s Day. Or that this occurred during a month meant to make families like ours feel welcome and safe. We’re used to nasty, hateful, and sometimes violent things being said about us and even about our family. But this is the first time someone managed to invade our lives like this - and drag our children into it."
Buttigieg said he is exploring pressing civil or criminal charges over the incident.