WH Demands Pence Apologize For ‘Homophobic Joke’ About Pete Buttigieg

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gives a speech on the Hudson River tunnel project at the West Side Yard on January 31, 2023 in New York City. President Biden traveled to New Y... NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gives a speech on the Hudson River tunnel project at the West Side Yard on January 31, 2023 in New York City. President Biden traveled to New York to speak about how the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law will help fund the Hudson River tunnel project and improve reliability for the 200,000 passenger trips per weekday on Amtrak and NJ Transit. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The White House called on former Vice President Mike Pence to apologize to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for mocking him for taking paternity leave after he and his husband adopted twins. 

“The former vice president’s homophobic joke about Secretary Buttigieg was offensive and inappropriate, all the more so because he treated women suffering from postpartum depression as a punchline,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a Monday statement. “He should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.”

The push from the White House comes days after Pence made fun of Buttigieg for taking paternity leave during his remarks at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, D.C. 

“When Pete’s two children were born, he took two months maternity leave, where upon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, airplanes nearly collided in midair,” Pence said. “I mean, Pete Buttigieg is the only person in human history to have a child and all the rest of us get postpartum depression.”

Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short deflected in trying to push back on the White House statement, saying the administration “should spare America the faux outrage.” Short added it “would be wise to focus less on placating the woke police and focus more on bank failures, planes nearly colliding in mid-air, train derailments, and the continued supply chain crisis.”

Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted twins in Sep. 2021. Following the adoption, Buttigieg announced he would take two months of paternity leave to be with his newborn son and daughter and received an onslaught of hostility from right-wingers.

“An honest question for you, Mike Pence, after your attempted joke this weekend. If your grandchild was born prematurely and placed on a ventilator at two months old – their tiny fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beep in the background – where would you be?” Chasten Buttigieg tweeted on Monday in response to Pence’s remarks.

Notable Replies

  1. If I did not know better I would say that the White House is trying to elevate Mike Pence for the Republican nomination by attacking him for being a Republican, I mean gay basher. That is would Biden like to run reelection against Mike Pence.

    As for Pence himself, every time he opens his mouth I think the 1/6 insurrections were right about what to do with Pence.

  2. First of all, these people never apologize. Fact is when they do, they do it repeatedly for the same odious offenses. For Pence the sanctimonious ass considers himself a Christian meaning he forgot Love they Neighbor.

  3. So what is more Pro-Life than two gay men adopting twins?

  4. The WH is right to punch Pence but the bad joke was only the last third of his misfeasance, the first third was his mischaracterization of transport events as somehow exceptional or worse than Trump’s disaster record and the next third was pretending any Secretary of Transportation could have altered those events in real time by being on duty.

    No big deal I guess but it does get tiresome hearing or reading reich-wing delusional versions of reality followed by some non sequitur w/o getting both the delusion and the bullshit called out together.

  5. These people are sick with their preoccupation of what goes on in their opponents’ bedroom. Talk about sticking their nose into other people’s business.

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