Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Friday that his family was targeted in a “terrifying” swatting incident — but this involved Child Protective Services.
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Buttigieg described what happened in a Substack post and said a CPS worker showed up at his home and asked to speak with him after someone filed a false report about him and his young children. He said his family was safe after the incident, adding “I am beyond furious.”
He invited them to come inside and asked what was happening.
“They explained that there had been an allegation against me, that it concerned our four-year-old twins, and that a forensic interview had been arranged for the children the following day,” Buttigieg wrote. “I could not be present at the children’s interview, nor could any family member sit in. Afterwards, they would come back and interview me. And only then would they tell me anything about the nature of the allegation.”
He revealed how this attack felt different from other political attacks he has faced in the past.
“I was bewildered and troubled, but tried to stay calm,” Buttigieg said. “I’m used to any number of falsehoods, attacks, and serious problems being thrown my way. What I didn’t understand was what could have led to this kind of visit. Then, the CPS worker told me something that made my stomach turn: I was not to be alone around the children, at least until the interview took place the next day.”
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He asked the CPS worker to stay until his husband, Chasten, returned to their home with the children. They agreed the kids would stay at their grandparents’ home after family dinner.
“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life,” Buttigieg said. “I tried to get my head around the idea that I had been accused of something so serious that I couldn’t be alone around my own children, and had consented to have them interviewed by strangers, without my knowing where the accusation had come from or even what it contained.”
Officers found nothing to substantiate the allegation, he said, and now he and his family have to now deal with the aftermath.
“To be clear, making a false report of this kind is a crime,” he said. “That’s as it should be, both to protect the innocent from false accusations, and to preserve the integrity of a process designed to protect children from harm. I don’t know how much we can do about it, but so help me God, if there is any way to press civil or criminal charges over this, we will. Not just for our own sakes but to draw a line that I thought everyone already recognized: do not mess with someone’s kids.”
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This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious.
Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal. https://t.co/72wxaVLzVT
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) June 26, 2026
