Last year, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg was stumping for President Joe Biden very, very vocally. Yet, Buttigieg has recently become more quiet.
Now we know why. He’s been on paid family leave since the middle of August, a Transportation Department spokesperson told Politico on Thursday.
In January, Buttigieg became secretary of transportation, and in August he adopted two newborns with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. After that, he started the 12-week leave allotted to federal employees with childcare responsibilities.
However, Buttigieg has neglected to discuss his absence publicly, and the Transportation Department remained silent on the subject until the Politico interview.
Now, the department has told Politico, “For the first four weeks, he was mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated… He has been ramping up activities since then.”
Buttigieg has, in fact, resumed his “activities.” He went on CNN this week to discuss the supply chains, and he met with Biden on Wednesday.
The Transportation Department is planning for Buttigieg to “continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children.”
Previously, the Transportation Department was remaining mum on journalists’ requests to see Buttigieg, in spite of Americans’ concerns over clogged ports and delayed supply chains.
On October 4, Fox News ran a story called “Buttigieg quiet on growing port congestion as shipping concerns build ahead of holidays.” Later that week, conservative journalists tweeted “#WheresPete.”
In other words, the Transportation Department broke the news two months late, during a transportation crisis.
Conservatives have been criticized Buttigieg’s performance since the Politico report.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R–Tenn.) told Breitbart News:
We’re in the middle of a transportation crisis, and Pete Buttigieg is sitting at home. Meanwhile, cargo boats are unable to dock and shelves are sitting empty. Pete needs to either get back to work or leave the Department of Transportation. It’s time to put American families first.
Some critics even suggested eliminating Buttigieg’s job.
How useless is the Secretary of Transportation? He went on paternity leave for two months and NOBODY EVEN BOTHERED TO NOTICE. https://t.co/hbbCN7WSOi
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 15, 2021
If the country can afford to lose you for two months so that you can relax at home, your job isn't necessary and should be eliminated https://t.co/dM7g83gpwB
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 15, 2021
Cabinet members usually perform mostly ceremonial duties, like representing the country at international conferences. In rare cases, Cabinet members can exercise political power by working around an overwhelmed president. For example, Richard Nixon’s Cabinet negotiated the transition into the Ford administration, while Nixon remained preoccupied by the media circus around Watergate, according to reports by Bob Woodward in his book Shadow
So, the transportation secretary isn’t entirely “useless.”
Still, Buttigieg could have preempted these criticisms by publicly disclosing his absence two months ago.
Instead, he waited until a crisis.
The Horn editorial team