Pete Buttigieg broke his silence with a Mike Pence joke about “maternity leave”, saying he had more important things to do than worry about “playing in Washington”.
The White House has called on Mr. Pence to apologize for a homophobic joke about the transportation secretary’s decision to take paternity leave following the birth of his twin boys.
Pence said Buttigieg, who is the first openly gay cabinet secretary, took “maternity leave” while airline troubles occurred in 2021.
“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child, and everyone else gets postpartum depression,” Pence said at the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner in Washington on Saturday.
When ABC asked Buttigieg if the former vice president owed him an apology, he replied, “You know, I’ll let other people talk about it.”
“It’s strange to me because the last time I saw him, he asked me about my children as a normal person would.”
“But again, I don’t have much time to focus on the Washington game because we have real work to do here,” he said.
Mr Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted twins who were born prematurely and spent weeks in hospital with health issues in 2021.
Chasten Buttigieg called Mr Pence on Monday and tweeted a picture of a secretary holding one of the children in a hospital room.
“Honest question to you (Mike Pence) after your attempted prank this weekend,” he tweeted.
“If your grandson was born prematurely and was put on a ventilator at two months old – his little fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beeped in the background – where would you be?”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Pence to apologize for his remarks.
“The former vice president’s homophobic joke about Buttigieg’s secretary was offensive and inappropriate, especially as he treated women suffering from postpartum depression as a punchline,” she said in a statement.
“He should apologize to women and LGBTQ people who have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.”
