Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is in the news, and it has nothing to do with those pesky racist highways he was working so hard to address.
On Friday, Buttigieg wrote a lengthy post to his Substack about a phony Child Protective Services call that led to his adopted children being taken from him for a day, and to him being interviewed after CPS workers and law enforcement made a random appearance at his home.
The worker and officer told Buttigieg a forensic interview had been scheduled for the 4-year-old twins based on allegations against him, and in the meantime, he was not allowed to be around the children. This began a saga that would lead Buttigieg to pointing the finger at his accuser while completely dismissing the system that let this unfold.
When his “husband” returned home with the kids, the decision was made for them to stay at their grandparents. He described the next day as quite an ordeal.
“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life,” he said.
“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 had his own interview where he heard what the allegations actually were.
“An anonymous caller had contacted CPS. The caller said that he had spoken to a woman who claimed to have met me at a conference several years ago in Alabama, where she said I told her that I had committed unspeakable violent crimes, and the caller believed my children were still at risk.”
He told the authorities he had not been to the town where this exchange took place, and CPS noted that the children’s interviews went well, raising no questions about their safety.
The post concluded with the former Biden administration official venting his frustrations with the situation.
But in some sense, he misses the mark.
Buttigieg consistently places the blame squarely on the hoaxer without once criticizing the system that facilitated this occasion.
“The police officer, the CPS professional, and the forensic interviewers who spoke to my children 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,” he wrote.
“To be clear, making a false report of this kind is a crime. That’s as it should be, both to protect the innocent from false accusations, and to preserve the integrity of a process designed to protect children from harm.”
Buttigieg even said the officer knew it was a politically motivated allegation.
Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David J. Bier picked up on this pattern, writing on social media platform X, “Why is he not upset with the government? ‘An anonymous caller said he told an anonymous woman at a fictitious event that he was violent’ is not a credible report. Why wouldn’t you be as furious at the officials who took this obvious hoax seriously?”
“Just following procedures”? Why is he not upset with the government? “An anonymous caller said he told an anonymous woman at a fictitious event that he was violent” is not a credible report. Why wouldn’t you be as furious at the officials who took this obvious hoax seriously? https://t.co/m8TAYu7ppP pic.twitter.com/myGL95d1H7
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) June 28, 2026
Indeed, Buttigieg should be mad at the system, but he isn’t.
Outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio have failed to address this obvious problem in their reporting on the incident. Heaven forbid our government should be fixed — or worse, reduced in size and scope.
As for Buttigieg, he’s just upset it happened to him.
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