Chasten Buttigieg on Wednesday went after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) over a Father’s Day post she issued celebrating dads as “fundamental.”
“The role of the father is absolutely fundamental to the family and to society as a whole,” Boebert wrote. “On this Father’s Day, I want to send out a shoutout of gratitude to all the dads across America!”
The role of the father is absolutely fundamental to the family and to society as a whole.
On this Father’s Day, I want to send out a shoutout of gratitude to all the dads across America!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 19, 2022
Chasten, who has two children via surrogate with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, suggested Boebert’s post was hypocritical because the Republican previously mocked the secretary for taking a full two months off for paternity leave during the still-raging supply-chain crisis.
“Our two-month-old son was on a ventilator at the children’s hospital when you attacked my husband for being with his family,” Chasten criticized Boebert. “I watched him take calls and Zooms from our hospital room all day, managing crisis after crisis while our son’s heart monitor beeped in the background.”
Our two-month-old son was on a ventilator at the children's hospital when you attacked my husband for being with his family. I watched him take calls and Zooms from our hospital room all day, managing crisis after crisis while our son's heart monitor beeped in the background. pic.twitter.com/zRkLiAANgV
— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) June 22, 2022
Boebert in November criticized “Mayor Pete” for being MIA during “one of the worst supply-chain crises since 1979.”
“The guy was gone — the guy was not working,” she said. “Because why? He was trying to figure out how to chest-feed.”
“Listen, I’m a mother of four,” the Republican continued. “I delivered one of my children in the front seat of my truck. … As a mom of four, we got things to do; ain’t nobody got time for two-and-a-half months of paternity leave. We have a world to save, here.”
Boebert suggested that while Buttigieg was not working he was using the same time to build “up his image,” noting an Amazon Prime documentary titled “Mayor Pete,” which was released in October 2021.
CNN host Jake Tapper in October pressed Buttigieg on why there was no announcement about his leave and no appointment of an acting secretary in the interim, the New York Post reported at the time.
Buttigieg brushed off the question and claimed that the department’s deputy secretary Polly Trottenberg was “doing phenomenal work” while he was gone for two months.
The transportation secretary went on to say he was “proud” of taking the time off, while claiming that he realized he still had to be “available 24/7.”
“Even though I have been on paternity leave, and I’m proud of it, obviously, given the nature of my job, when you take a job like mine, you understand and accept that you’re going to have to be available 24/7, depending on what’s going on, and you’re going to have to engage,” Buttigieg said.
“And I did, even if that meant taking a phone call or making a decision from a hospital room,” the former presidential candidate added. “But I am so thankful for the phenomenal work that my colleagues at the Department of Transportation have done and are doing.”
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, too, criticized Buttigieg’s lengthy absence, which can be viewed, below: