US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded to former Vice President Mike Pence’s criticism of him.
On Saturday, at a Gridiron dinner for reporters in Washington, DC, Pence blasted Buttigieg, who is gay, for taking two months of “maternity leave” after her twins are born in September 2021. Referring to air travel disruptions in recent months. , Pence added, “Pete Buttigieg is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else has postpartum depression.”
In a clip from an interview with ABC’s Gio Benitez released Tuesday on “The View,” Buttigieg was asked if Pence owed him an apology.
“You know, I’ll let other people talk about it,” Buttigieg said. “It’s strange for me, because the last time I saw him, he was asking about my children like a normal person.”
“I think, you know, in political and white tie events, it’s a little bit different. But again, there’s not a lot of time to focus on the Washington game because we have work to do here.
On Monday, Pence’s joke drew condemnation from the White House.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, called the joke homophobic, offensive and inappropriate, and she criticized him for treating postpartum depression as a punch line.
“He should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who have the right to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said.
Chasten Buttigieg, the transportation secretary’s husband, slammed Pence on Twitter as he highlighted the health struggles his premature babies, Penelope and Gus, experienced in their first months of life. The baby had a respiratory virus, and Gus was on a ventilator in the pediatric intensive care unit.
Buttigieg has faced repeated attacks from conservatives, such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson, for taking parental leave, which coincides with a national supply chain crisis. Buttigieg insisted that he had the right to take and was available at all times for major decisions during the break.
From 2012 to 2020, Buttigieg was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Pence served as the state’s governor from 2013 to 2017 and is reportedly running for president in 2024.
Pence has rejected calls to apologize. Marc Short, assistant and former chief of staff, sent a tweet there accused the Biden administration of “faking outrage” and “pleasing the woke police.”