Former Vice President Mike Pence has come under fire for what has been called a homophobic joke that he made during the Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, DC on Saturday, March 11. Pence was referring to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s “maternity leave” following the premature birth of his adopted kids.
In 2021, Buttigieg, together with his husband, adopted newborn twins. The babies reportedly developed respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and one of them needed to be hospitalized and hooked to a ventilator.
Pence remarked that during the two months of Buttigieg’s “maternity leave,” incidents such as thousands getting stranded at airports, problems with the air traffic system, and the near collision of airplanes happened, seeming to imply that he was neglecting his duties as Transportation Secretary.
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.”
Due to his remarks, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asked Pence for an apology. According to her, Pence’s statements were offensive and disrespectful, not only to Buttigieg, but to women, sufferers of postpartum depression, and the members of the LGBTQ community. She added that all these people should be treated with respect and dignity.
Chasten, Buttigieg’s husband, also responded by posting a tweet aimed at Pence, asking him if his grandchild was in the hospital on a ventilator, “their tiny fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beep in the background…” where would he be?
While Pence has yet to respond to criticism of his attempted jokes, Mike Short, his former chief of staff, took to Twitter to express his opinion. According to him, the current administration should focus their attention on bank failures, near-collisions of planes, train incidents, and the supply crisis instead of on the “woke police.”
Pence, a former governor of Indiana, and Buttigieg, a former mayor of a town in Indiana, worked together to address economic development issues in the state, with Pence commenting in an interview in 2019 that they had a “great working relationship.”
A few months earlier, Tucker Carlson of Fox News also had taken a jab at Buttigieg, who was then on paternity leave, saying that he was trying to “figure out how to breastfeed.” Buttigieg, during a conversation with CNN, replied by saying that he does not plan to apologize to Carlson, nor anyone else, for prioritizing his children.
