对于交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格来说，父爱和政治并不相互排斥。
自从Buttigieg和他的丈夫贞洁被收养的2021年出生的双胞胎，民主党人和他的家人一再受到共和党人的批评和嘲笑，包括前副总统迈克·彭斯。最近，彭斯让白宫描述作为一个关于Buttigieg的“恐同笑话”休育儿假。
“当皮特的两个孩子出生时，他休了两个月的产假，成千上万的旅客被困在机场，空中交通系统关闭，飞机差点在我们的跑道上相撞，”据报道，彭斯3月11日在华盛顿特区为记者和政治家举办的年度Gridiron晚宴上说皮特是人类历史上唯一一个有孩子的人，其他人都得了产后抑郁症。"
彭斯正在考虑2024年的总统竞选，此后拒绝道歉甚至双倍下注关于他有争议的言论。
3月17日，他在新罕布什尔州的一次共和党晚宴上对记者说:“烤架晚宴是烤肉。”。“我有很多笑话是针对我的，我也有很多笑话是针对共和党和民主党的。我唯一能想到的是，皮特·布蒂吉格不仅不能做好自己的工作，还开不起玩笑。”
在周一播出的采访中ABC新闻的“大声说出LZ Granderson的生活”播客但蒂吉格说，如果他不是“每天都被提醒什么是如此重要”，这种“攻击”会让他更加困扰。
“不要误解我的意思，这对人们来说是令人恼火的，尤其是那些在电视上谈论家庭价值观的人。然后，当你真正的家庭陷入困境时，他们把它作为攻击你的一种方式，或者作为一个政治足球，”国务卿说。“不要误会我的意思，这肯定会在某种程度上影响到你。但在另一个层面上，你会意识到那只是政治。”
巴蒂吉夫妇的双胞胎孩子，佩内洛普·罗斯和约瑟夫·奥古斯特·格斯生病了患有呼吸道合胞病毒(RSV)的早产儿。两个婴儿都不得不住院并输氧。他们已经完全康复，现在是19个月大的健康婴儿。
Buttigieg说:“当你面对一个涉及一个孩子的生死斗争，并且结果很好的时候，政治游戏的结果对你来说就变得不那么重要了。”“因为如果你必须在这些事情中做出选择，这是一个很容易的选择。你最想和最需要解决的事情是你家人的幸福，这让你记住，其余的大部分都是噪音。这并不意味着一切都好，在政治和政策领域，现在有很多家庭正受到攻击，然而，当你从这种角度看问题时，至少在我们的旅程中，这是生孩子让你对生活中最重要的事情进行健康现实检查的许多方式之一。”
这位部长说，像彭斯这样的评论，他曾是印第安纳州州长，而Buttigieg是南本德市长，“是一场引人注目的比赛”，专注于他的家庭是“最好的答案”。
“不要误解我，我们会捍卫我们的家庭，”他补充道。“Chasten以惊人的方式为我们的家庭辩护，但你最不想做的事情就是用你的注意力奖励这种事情。”
他继续说道:“我认为，对这些攻击和这种卑鄙行为的最好回答是，成为一个繁荣的家庭，或者尽你所能成为一个繁荣的家庭。”。“对那些甚至不认为我们是一个真正家庭的人来说，最好的回答就是我们家庭本身的爱和美好。这不是一个笑话。不是推文。这是那些批评家可能永远不会看到的，即使他们看到了也不知道如何尊重，这是无条件的巨大的爱，在这个新的家庭中将我们联系在一起，这给了我的生活一种不同的意义。”
Buttigieg responds to Pence's 'joke' on his 'maternity leave'
For Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, fatherhood and politics are not mutually exclusive.
Since Buttigieg and his husband Chastenadoptednewborn twins in 2021, the Democrat and his family have been repeatedly criticized and mocked by Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence. Most recently, Pence made what the White Housedescribedas a "homophobic joke" about Buttigiegtaking parental leave.
"When Pete's two children were born, he took two months' maternity leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways," Pence reportedly said at the annual Gridiron Dinner for journalists and politicians in Washington, D.C., on March 11. "Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression."
Pence, who is considering a 2024 presidential run, has sincerefused to apologizeand evendoubled downon his controversial remarks.
"The Gridiron Dinner is a roast," he told reporters at a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on March 17. "I had a lot of jokes directed to me, and I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats. The only thing I can figure is Pete Buttigieg not only can't do his job, but he can't take a joke."
In an interview airing Monday onABC News' "Life Out Loud with LZ Granderson" podcast, Buttigieg said such "attacks" would bother him more if he wasn't "being daily reminded of what was so important."
"Don't get me wrong, it is galling for people, especially people who go on television talking about family values. And then when your actual family is struggling, they use it as a way to attack you or as a political football," the secretary said. "Don't get me wrong, that definitely gets to you at some level. But at another level, you realize that that's just politics."
The Buttigiegs' twin children, Penelope Rose and Joseph August "Gus,"became sickwith respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as premature infants. Both babies had to be hospitalized and put on oxygen. They have since fully recovered and are now healthy 19-month-olds.
"When you're face-to-face with a life-or-death struggle involving a child and that comes out OK, it becomes less important to you that the political game comes out OK," Buttigieg said. "Because if you got to choose between one of those things working out, it's an easy choice. The things you want and need most to work out is the wellbeing of your family and it allows you to remember that so much of the rest is noise. It doesn't make it OK and there are different ways in the political and the policy space that so many families are under attack right now and yet, when you can put it in that kind of perspective, at least in our journey in our path, it was one of the many ways that having kids gives you a healthy reality check on what matters most in life."
The secretary said comments like those made by Pence, who was previously governor of Indiana while Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, "are a play for attention" and that focusing on his family is "the best answer."
"Don't get me wrong, we'll stick up for our family," he added. "Chasten has stuck up for our family in amazing ways, but the last thing you want to do is reward that kind of thing with your attention."
"I think the best answer to a lot of these attacks and a lot of this meanness that's out there, the best answer is to be a thriving family or to do everything you can to be a thriving family," he continued. "The best answer to people out there who don't even think we count as a real family is the love and the beauty of our family itself. It's not a zinger. It's not a tweet. It's something that those critics will maybe never see for themselves and wouldn't know how to respect if they did, which is the unconditional and enormous love that binds us together in this new family -- that gives a different kind of meaning to my life."
