While the United States has been dealing with a terrible supply chain crisis, the current Transportation secretary has been MIA for two months.
Biden appointee Pete Buttigieg has been on “paternity leave” since August after he and his husband adopted twins.
Conservatives are furious over this and are slamming Buttigiege on social media for ignoring his duties while the issues only get worse every day.
Others are claiming that there is no reason for Buttigieg to be on paternity leave in the first place, as this is usually reserved for women who are recovering from actually giving birth.
Despite the supply chain crisis, Buttigieg has been MIA for two months.
Here's more on his disappearance from the New York Post:
While Americans worry if they’ll be able to afford — or even find — presents for their children this holiday season, the Biden administration’s point person to clear up the supply chain bottleneck, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has been home playing with his.
Besides several recent television hits, Buttigieg has been a stay-at-home dad Politico reported — out on paternity leave for nearly two months amid the spiraling crisis to spend time with his husband and two newborn babies. And the Biden cabinet secretary plans to continue to give them home support in the coming weeks, the report said.
The news of Buttigieg’s daddy day care comes as dozens of large ships remained stuck in a traffic jam near the Los Angeles coast for more than a month waiting to dock and unload goods including toasters, sneakers, bicycles and cars. A shortage of truckers has also prevented companies from distributing supplies across the country.
As the holidays approach, experts warned that the cost of children’s toys is up as much as 10 percent, noting many in-demand gifts will likely be out of stock soon.
“For the first four weeks, he was mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated,” a spokesperson said of Buttigeg’s absence in the crisis. “He has been ramping up activities since then.”
At the same time, the secretary will “continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children.”
National Review with more details on the explanation for Buttigieg's absence:
They didn’t previously announce it, but Buttigieg’s office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies. “For the first four weeks, he was mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. “He has been ramping up activities since then.” As he does that, Buttigieg will “continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children,” the spokesperson added…
Buttigieg’s time away to help care for his children is the latest example of paid leave for new parents becoming more common in the United States, even at the highest levels of government. Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget SHALANDA YOUNG is pregnant and is planning to take “time away from the office to be with her daughter after she’s born in the next few weeks,” according to an OMB spokesperson. Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.), the first senator ever to give birth in office, took 12 weeks maternity leave when her daughter was born in 2018, though she famously appeared on the Senate floor with the newborn to cast a vote…In the past, Cabinet secretaries felt compelled to come back sooner. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development JULIÁN CASTRO took about a “week or so” of leave after his child was born, his spokesperson told us.
It seems that Buttigieg is only following the lead of other Biden Administration officials, including Biden himself.
Several conservatives took to Twitter to call Buttigieg and the entire administration out for their vacation habits:
Some liberals have resorted to playing the "misogyny" and "homophobe" cards to attack conservatives for criticizing Buttigieg.
Matt Walsh and other conservatives put an end to that line of attack quickly by pointing out that Buttigieg shouldn't have had two months of paternity leave to begin with, since he isn't a woman recovering from pregnancy or nursing...
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