The husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday that he hasn’t heard from Mike Pence in the days since the former vice president mocked his family, but will continue to hold him accountable for his words.
Chastain Buttigieg was asked on ABC’s “The View” whether Pence had contacted her after joking at a dinner for reporters and politicians that Pete Buttigieg had taken “maternity leave” when she and her husband The newborn twins were adopted.
“Pete is the only person in the history of mankind who has children and everyone else has postpartum depression,” Pence said at the Gridiron Dinner on Saturday.
Chastain Buttigieg, who said he did not expect to hear from Pence, called the remarks “part of a much larger trend attacking families.”
“I spoke out because we all have an obligation to hold people accountable when they say something wrong, especially when it’s wrong, especially when it’s homophobic, and I don’t take it when it’s towards my family.”, and I can’t think of anything else, especially when you bring a very young, medically fragile child into this,” he said.
Pence defended his comments Thursday night after speaking at a Republican Party dinner in New Hampshire.
“The gridiron dinner is roast. I had a lot of jokes, and I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats,” he told reporters. “The only thing I can figure out is Pete Buttigieg not only doing his job Can’t, but he can’t even joke.”