No apology from Pence after ‘homophobic joke,’ Chasten Buttigieg says

Chasten Buttigieg, creator and the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, advised co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” on Thursday that he has not heard from former Vice President Mike Pence since Pence made what the White Home referred to as a “homophobic joke” geared toward his household over the weekend.

Requested by co-host Sunny Hostin if he is heard something from Pence, or if expects to, Chasten Buttigieg rapidly mentioned, “No.”

“No, and I believe it is not ‘woke,’ you realize, to say that one thing is homophobic or misogynistic. Does not make you woke. It does not make you a snowflake to inform somebody they made a mistake,” he mentioned, defending his husband for taking parental go away.

“I do know all of us wrestle to discover a stability between work and household life. I’ve by no means seen somebody work tougher than my husband to seek out that stability, however I believe Republican or Democrat, we will all agree when your baby — our prematurely born baby — is barely 5 kilos, when your child is related to a ventilator, you do not wish to be wherever however by their bedside,” he mentioned.

Pence, headlining on the annual and usually comedic Gridiron Membership dinner in Washington for journalists and politicians, mocked Buttigieg for taking parental go away after the delivery of his adopted twins, whereas he mentioned People confronted points with air journey.

“He took two months ‘maternity’ go away whereupon hundreds of vacationers have been stranded in airports, the air site visitors system shut down, and airplanes practically collided on our runways. Pete is the one individual in human historical past to have a toddler and everybody else will get postpartum despair,” Pence mentioned, in response to reporters current.

The Buttigiegs’ twins, now 18 months, have been born prematurely, developed Respiratory Syncytial Virus An infection (RSV) and one was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator — a “terrifying” expertise that the couple documented on Medium and a degree Chasten Buttigieg raised in a tweet geared toward Pence.

“I spoke up as a result of all of us have an obligation to carry individuals accountable for after they say one thing mistaken, particularly when it is misogynistic, particularly when it is homophobic, and I simply do not take that when it is in the direction of my household, and I do not suppose anybody else would, particularly whenever you carry a really small, medically-fragile baby into it,” he mentioned.

Chasten Buttigieg additionally mentioned Pence’s feedback have been “a part of a a lot larger development attacking households.”

“The factor about what he mentioned is it flies within the face of what he says he’s. He says he is a household values Republican. So I do not suppose he is working towards what he preaches right here,” he mentioned.

“Somebody wrote this, and he checked it and purposely mentioned maternity go away relatively than paternity go away — but in addition, it is a larger dialog in regards to the work that girls do in households — taking a swipe in any respect ladies and all households and anticipating that girls would keep residence and lift youngsters is a misogynistic view, particularly from a person who mentioned simply final yr that we ought to be supporting extra people who undertake,” he added.

ABC Information’ Gio Benitez requested the transportation secretary himself on Monday afternoon if he thought Pence owed him an apology, to which he responded, “I am going to let others communicate to that.”

“It is a unusual factor to me as a result of the final time I noticed him, he requested me about my youngsters like a standard individual would. I suppose, you realize, at a political occasion in white tie, it is a bit completely different,” Pete Buttigieg mentioned.

Marc Brief, Pence’s former chief of workers and co-chair of an advocacy group Pence based, referred to as the response from the White Home “fake outrage.”

“The White Home could be smart to focus much less on placating the woke police and focus extra on financial institution failures, planes practically colliding in mid-air, practice derailments, and the continued provide chain disaster,” Brief mentioned in an earlier assertion.

In feedback Thursday evening, reported by The Related Press, Pence defended his feedback, telling reporters in New Hampshire: “The Gridiron Dinner is a roast. I had a whole lot of jokes directed to me, and I directed a whole lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats. The one factor I can determine is Pete Buttigieg not solely cannot do his job, however he cannot take a joke.”

The dialog on “The View” Thursday turned to the importance of paid parental go away, which isn’t required by federal legislation within the U.S.

“Everybody ought to have paid household go away, for each spouses, it is so necessary,” Chasten Buttigieg mentioned. “There’s nothing weak about that work. It is the toughest work you will ever do in your life.”

Pete Buttigieg additionally advised co-hosts of “The View” in October 2021 that “perhaps some good got here out of” the assaults he is confronted as a result of, he mentioned, “It is helped us have a dialog about parental go away.”

“Each American ought to have the ability to receives a commission parental go away. That is one thing that the president believes in and has proposed. It is one thing I consider,” he added on the time.