Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was the target of an anonymous report that police determined was false and that he says forced him to spend a night away from his four-year-old twins.
Incident Details
Buttigieg wrote in a Substack post that a Michigan State Police officer told him they found nothing to substantiate the anonymous allegation and believed it was politically motivated. He described the 24-hour ordeal as “among the darkest hours of my life.”
According to Buttigieg, a Michigan State Police officer and a child protective services worker came to his home after receiving an anonymous report alleging he posed a danger to his children. He said authorities arranged forensic interviews for his twins and instructed him not to be alone with them until the interviews were complete.
The following day, Buttigieg said investigators told him the anonymous caller claimed he had confessed years earlier to violent crimes during a chance meeting in Alabama. Buttigieg said he had never been to the town where the meeting allegedly occurred. He said police told him the allegation would not be referred to prosecutors, while Child Protective Services found nothing to substantiate the report.
Reaction and Context
Buttigieg, who is widely viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, has long been the target of anti-LGBTQ attacks. In recent years, conservative activists and some Republican officials have opposed efforts to portray same-sex parents as ordinary families in schools and public life.
Buttigieg drew criticism from some Republicans for taking paternity leave after he and his husband, Chasten, adopted their twins while he was serving in the Biden administration. Buttigieg also wrote that he has faced death threats during his career.
Public officials from across the political spectrum have increasingly been targeted by swatting, which is the act of making a false call to emergency services to prompt a response at a particular address. The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to show up.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
