"A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family," writes Pete Buttigieg.

At Substack.

I don't think he's accusing Child Protective Services or the police of handling the complaint improperly. Should they have done anything differently? Read the essay carefully and tell me what you think. I believe the answer is no.

The police officer, the CPS professional, and the forensic interviewers who spoke to my children were just following procedure and doing their jobs - admirable jobs that must be incredibly difficult every day, protecting the most vulnerable children from the most horrible threats....

The "terrible thing" was not done by the authorities but only by the anonymous person who made a complaint against him. 

Even though the accusation was absurdly and obviously false, and was promptly rejected by law enforcement, I still worry... about how anyone, even in today’s world, could fail to respect the absolutely fundamental principle that whatever you think about someone in politics, you leave people’s kids out of it.

No matter how well-recognized a principle is, there are always transgressors. There's always some outlier person who's going to go ahead and do the forbidden thing. There's some value in expressing outrage, but to express outrage is to tell people how to be outrageous. 

Is the Biden administration responsible for the loss of Spirit?

Here’s Mayor Pete announcing the Biden administration’s decision to fight the Jet Blue and Spirit merger so they could protect consumers and ensure low fares. Now the airline doesn’t exist and passengers are stranded across the country. pic.twitter.com/u7TXdwG9vj

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 2, 2026

"Buttigieg 'would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,' Harris writes in a passage of her soon-to-be-released book...'"

"'But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk. And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.'"

From "The Running Mate Kamala Harris Didn’t Dare Choose/'I love Pete,' she writes in her new book. But picking a gay man would have been too risky" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

What kind of leadership potential is this? She made the wrong decision, admits to not daring, and all because she presumes that we, the people, are prejudiced.

To take her at her word, she declined to pick the running mate she thought was the best because she thought we Americans were being asked "a lot" to accept her. But it was hard to accept her when she'd been pushed forward because of her identity and not because she was the best. Then she decides that we louts wouldn't accept a gay man even though he was the best.

What were she and Pete mutually sad about? How simultaneously hostile to minorities and eager to promote minorities we terrible Americans are?

"Biden’s post-presidency is already striking. His memoir sold for $10 million — a major sum, but tens of millions less than Barack Obama’s."

"At least one report has suggested he may be struggling to raise money for his presidential library, though a spokesperson described this characterization... as 'unfair.'... In official Washington, there is little... expression of appreciation for the former president. Biden still casts a long shadow over his party. In recent days, his former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had to answer for whether he said all he knew about Biden’s cognition in office. ('I told the truth, which is that he was old,' Buttigieg told NPR’s Steve Inskeep. 'You could see that he was old.') And had his former VP Kamala Harris actually run for California governor, the NYT noted, she would 'have faced difficult questions about how much she knew about President Biden’s decline and whether she participated in shielding his diminished health from the public.'...  Biden... has kept himself at a remove from the Oversight proceedings and the former aides who are testifying...."

From "Playbook: How Joe Biden is living" (Politico).

Quotes about the House Oversight proceedings from "two people familiar with Biden’s thinking":

"Buttigieg’s remarks came days after Rahm Emanuel... a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told Megyn Kelly that 'a man can’t become a woman'..."

"... a comment that directly contradicted party orthodoxy and sparked fresh divisions over how Democrats should approach transgender rights. 'I think most reasonable people would recognize that there are serious fairness issues if you just treat this as not mattering when a trans athlete wants to compete in women’s sports,' Buttigieg told NPR."

From "Pete Buttigieg weighs in on ‘fairness’ of transgender kids playing girls’ sports" (Advocate).

This gets my tag "2028 campaign." Looks like Emanuel made a significant move and Buttigieg felt obliged to react. But did Buttigieg say anything comprehensible? He also said "The approach starts with compassion, compassion for transgender people, compassion for families, especially of young people who are going through this, and also empathy for people who are not sure what all of this means for them... and just taking everybody seriously." And: "These decisions should be in the hands of sports leagues and school boards and not politicians, least of all politicians in Washington trying to use this as a political pawn."

And here's Rahm:



"So do you believe boys should be able to play in girls sports?"/"No."

"Mr. Buttigieg’s decision to skip the 2026 race to succeed Senator Gary Peters, a retiring Democrat, allows him to pivot more easily to the next contest for the White House...."

"Mr. Buttigieg determined he could not run for both the Senate and the White House, according to one of the people familiar with his planning..... Mr. Buttigieg, who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was seen as the most prominent potential contender in next year’s marquee Senate contest.... But he also would have been vulnerable to 'carpetbagger' attacks, and was plainly aware of that risk. Mr. Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., became a Michigan resident in 2022, moving to Traverse City, where he lives with his husband, Chasten, and their twin toddlers.... Term limits will preclude Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from running for a third time next year, and Mr. Buttigieg is not expected to pursue that office...."

From "Pete Buttigieg, a Possible 2028 Contender, Won’t Run for Senate in Michigan/The former transportation secretary, who moved to Michigan from Indiana in 2022, had been seen as the most prominent potential candidate in next year’s marquee contest" (NYT).

"What do we mean when we talk about diversity? Is it caring for people’s different experiences and making sure no one is mistreated because of them..."

"... which I will always fight for? Or is it making people sit through a training that looks like something out of Portlandia, which I have also experienced. And it is how Trump Republicans are made."

Said Pete Buttigieg, at a "Future of the Democratic Party" forum, responding to a question from David Axelrod about the "spectacle of the Democratic National Committee chair election," quoted in "Pete Buttigieg slams Democrats' 'Portlandia' approach to pushing diversity" (Yahoo! News).

Pete Buttigieg is abandoning ship on DEI, admitting that it often amounts to "making people sit through a training that looks like something out of Portlandia."

Buttigieg is like a LibBot2000, fine-tuned by McKinsey consultants. The tide is turning.pic.twitter.com/5IFC5zqb3V

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 20, 2025

"I have a lot of humility about having only moved to Michigan a few years ago. Although, of course, I did grow up in the neighborhood."

Said Pete Buttigieg, quoted in "Buttigieg Says Maybe, Whitmer Says No Way to Michigan Senate Race/The suddenly open seat in a top-tier battleground has several Michigan politicians taking a serious look" (NYT).

"In the neighborhood" = Indiana. But his husband, Chasten, was born in Traverse City and raised in its suburbs.

"[Bike lanes] are often installed not to satisfy the barely measurable trickle of residents who pedal to work..."

"... but mainly to make car traffic worse enough that people will be discouraged from driving.... The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent.... Rodney Foxworth, a longtime civic activist who now leads an anti-bike lane group, says the city 'has a bias in favor of bike lanes no matter whether residents or businesses want them, and a lot of these lanes are being installed in Black, low-income communities. There is a nexus between bike lanes and gentrification.'... Adding bike lanes 'is meeting a relatively small demand' from cyclists in an older, largely African American area, [VJ Kapur, an advisory neighborhood commissioner,] concedes, 'but we are working to make the roadway safer. We are not scheming to induce developers to displace folks from the neighborhood. Change is occurring. Bike lanes potentially yield a visceral reaction because they are alien, visible implements going into a neighborhood that has looked very much the same for a long time.'"

From "The truth about bike lanes: They’re not about the bikes/D.C. is building miles of bike lanes, though fewer people are biking to work" (WaPo). That's an opinion column by Marc Fisher. 

Can I get an opinion from Pete Buttigieg? I remember this from back in 2022: "Pete Buttigieg launches $1B pilot to build racial equity in America's roads." He was inviting us to lean toward the interpretation that there is systemic racism in the design of road projects, so shouldn't we presume Rodney Foxworth is right about the motivation behind the installation of bike lanes?

"But while he is seen as a long shot for VP, the blizzard of Buttigieg appearances is thrilling his legions of fans on social media..."

"... who see the young Midwestern mayor turned transportation secretary as an adept messenger for a reshaped, post-Biden campaign. Fans who have stuck by Buttigieg since his 2020 White House bid often identify themselves with a bee emoji — an insider reference to his memorable encounter with a bee during an Iowa campaign rally — or recently more simply with a dragon. Across TikTok, X, YouTube and Threads, they share videos of his appearances and boost his remarks, adding notes saying he 'NAILS it,' 'SCHOOLS Fox host' or simply 'slays.'"

From "A long shot for vice president, Pete Buttigieg is suddenly everywhere/In a reshaped race, the transportation secretary has dialed up his role as a key political messenger for the Democratic Party" (WaPo).

His speaking ability really is fantastic. The tone of his voice, the speed, the substance... whether you agree with him or not, you really ought to admit that he's the best at speaking. The others in contention for VP pick are nowhere near him in this skill, which is not the only skill involved in government, even though we often act as if it is. I consider Trump a genius at speaking, but it's a wild and entertaining form of speech that makes some people worry he lacks the proper temperament to serve as President. Buttigieg sounds exactly presidential. 

"The majority of the financial fallout is likely to lay primarily with the insurance industry...."

"Industry experts told FT that insurers could pay out losses for bridge damage, port disruption, and any loss of life. The collapse could drive 'one of the largest claims ever to hit the marine (re)insurance market,' John Miklus, president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters, told Insurance Business.... The Dali is covered by the Britannia Steam Ship Insurance Association Ltd.... Britannia... told FT it was 'working closely with the ship manager and relevant authorities to establish the facts and to help ensure that this situation is dealt with quickly and professionally.' Britannia is one of 12 mutual insurers included in the International Group of P&I Clubs, which maintains more than $3 billion of reinsurance cover...."

From "Here's who could be responsible for paying for the Baltimore bridge disaster" (Business Insider).

Despite all that insurance, Joe Biden was quick to say — please tell me why — "It is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect Congress to support my effort."

By the way, isn't it amazing to think of a bridge standing all these years — since 1977 — when a crash into one pier was always capable of bringing the whole structure down? Think of all the ships that passed through without hitting either pier. The bridge was always vulnerable.

At the NYT: "Engineers are raising questions about piers supporting the bridge."

"So I don’t want to say anything off the cuff but I respect where you’re coming from."

Said Pete Buttigieg, quoted in "Climate protesters crash Buttigieg interview, chanting 'stop Petro Pete'" (The Hill).

Breaking: we just chased Secretary Pete Buttigieg off the stage at the Meyerhoff Symphony.

Petro Pete is a coward. As we write he is ramming down our throats the Sea Port and GulfLink oil terminals - each worse than Keystone.

We must resist him with all we've got. And we will. pic.twitter.com/aVKeCre5eH

— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 10, 2023

As I was playing that video out loud, Meade said, "Why doesn't a Cabinet Secretary have better security?" And that made me think perhaps the interruption was considered desirable — by Buttigieg, by the Biden administration/campaign. It isn't hard to generate ideas about why getting interrupted by extreme and rude climate activists might be advantageous.

And yet Buttigieg's response was so weak.  As one protester proclaims — after Buttigieg is ushered out of the room — "He said he can't speak off the cuff!" 

If the interruption had been anticipated, Buttigieg should have been prepared with something like Ronald "I am paying for this microphone" Reagan. 

Was Virginia Heffernan's Wired article about Pete Buttigieg badly written?

I saw Wired's promotion of the article on Twitter 2 days ago (2 members of my family independently shared this with me, so it must be my kind of raw material):

With a remarkable blend of intellect and empathy, Pete Buttigieg brings a fresh perspective to the forefront of public discourse. https://t.co/mzbXgnvkSv

📷: ​​Argus Paul Estabrook pic.twitter.com/KzI3qKrIA2

— WIRED (@WIRED) May 18, 2023

I read the first few paragraphs of the article and felt stirred up to make fun of it, but then I stopped myself. This morning, I'm seeing a Legal Insurrection article by Mike LaChance that reflects the sort of mockery I nearly fell into: "Wired Magazine Gets Roasted for Cringeworthy Puff Piece on Pete Buttigieg/'he was willing to devote yet another apse in his cathedral mind to making his ideas about three mighty themes—neoliberalism, masculinity, and Christianity—intelligible to me.'"

Did I miss my chance to get in on the early mockery action or was I right to stop myself — because this thing might be brilliant writing? Is this something in the Hunter S. Thompson/Tom Wolfe tradition?

Legal Insurrection quotes the first, second, and fifth paragraphs and comments "It's so over the top." Yeah? And did the writer go over the top for a reason and with exciting, interesting words? Let's read the first 2 paragraphs and keep in mind that this might be great writing:

"Publicly and privately, signs are growing that the Transportation secretary’s usual Eagle Scout patience is giving way to frustration."

It says here in Politico, in "Buttigieg world frustrated at GOP attacks over train wreck/'Pete Buttigieg has taken a lot of bullets for the president on this,' one senior Democrat said."

I think Politico means this to be taken for serious analysis. 

"I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own."

Tweeted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, after experiencing some criticism from Republicans for his lack of visibility after the disaster. 

I'm reading  "Drink bottled water, officials tell Ohio town hit by toxic train crash/The derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, released more hazardous substances than first reported, adding to the distrust and fear of nearby residents" (WaPo)

My hypothesis: The Bidens deliberately froze Kamala Harris's political career.

I'm reading this CNN article — "Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris' frustrating start as vice president" — and reading between the lines.

Read it yourself. It's very long. Too long to excerpt adequately. But let me know what you think. My hypothesis is based, first, on a belief that Jill Biden hated the way Harris treated her husband in that first debate. Let me cherry pick from the CNN article and quote just the things that reinforce my suspicion that the Bidens want to disable Harris:

Many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she's able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden's team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president....

She could be just a year away from launching a presidential campaign of her own, given doubts throughout the political world that Biden will actually go through with a reelection bid in 2024, something he's pledged to do publicly and privately....

 She can't start running unless and until he says he won't run. She can't compete with him. 

WaPo's fact checker casts doubt on Robert A. Caro's "The Power Broker."

In "Robert Moses and the saga of the racist parkway bridges" (WaPo), Glenn Kessler fact-checks something Pete Buttigieg said: 

"I’m still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a White and a Black neighborhood or if an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach — or that would’ve been — in New York was — was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices."

The question isn't whether Buttigieg got it wrong, but whether the massively respected Robert A. Caro got it wrong in his 1974 book about Robert Moses. And Kessler finds that in the years since the publication of the book, significant doubts have been raised about the part — 2 pages — containing the anecdote about the motivation for the height of the underpasses. 

Caro's only source for the story was Sidney M. Shapiro, "a close Moses associate and former chief engineer and general manager of the Long Island State Park Commission."

"Climb aboard the Almost Heaven, which is somewhere between a trawler and a yacht, big and boxy."

"Step inside the cabin and marvel at the creature comforts: a semicircular, plush-leather couch with a matching ottoman, glass cabinets trimmed with dark wood, a marble dining-room table with thick white candles... Below deck, the master bedroom is cozy but well-appointed.... There's a guest room.... Up on the party deck, amid the wrought-iron chairs and tables with umbrellas, you might see Trump-allied Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), just months removed from objecting to President Biden’s election, talking college football with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 'Pete’s from Notre Dame,' said Tuberville.... On one evening cruise, some years back, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was so moved by the picturesque Washington skyline that she began singing 'God Bless America.'....  Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), an Almost Heaven regular, has regaled fellow passengers with 'American Pie.'... 'All I’m saying is I don’t think our Founding Fathers anticipated the survival of this democratic experiment to rest in the hands of a man who lives in a house boat,' Jenna Valle-Riestra, a press secretary for the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a now-deleted tweet...  [The boat is] a place where deals can be floated and bills can get watered down. Where trust can live, if fleetingly, among people whose constituents don’t trust each other at all.... For some that sounds like Almost Heaven. For other’s that’s just a nice way to describe living in limbo."

 From "Washington’s hottest club is Joe Manchin’s houseboat" (WaPo).

The name of the boat is the first 2 words of John Denver's beloved song about Joe Manchin's state. 

Does Manchin actually live on the boat? Yes, it is his residence when he is in Washington, The Washingtonian reported back in February: "Manchin lives on a boat because he doesn’t like living here." Republicans attacked him for owning an expensive boat, but it was cheap compared to the price of land-based housing in Washington.  

And John Denver didn't write that song, and the song wasn't really written about West Virginia! It's about Gaithersburg, Maryland or maybe Massachusetts:

Robert Moses is trending on Twitter.

I'll just give you one tweet to explain why:

Guys: pick up a book about Robert Moses and get back to us. https://t.co/IZHLXC7Igj

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) April 11, 2021

Pick up "a" book means pick up the book — "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert A. Caro. 

There's also this: "Robert Moses and His Racist Parkway, Explained/The story: Robert Moses ordered engineers to build the Southern State Parkway’s bridges extra-low, to prevent poor people in buses from using the highway. The truth? It’s a little more complex" (Bloomberg, 2017). 

(To comment, email me here.)

"Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday that neither a gas tax nor a mileage tax would be part of President Joe Biden's sweeping infrastructure plan to be detailed on Wednesday."

 CNN reports. 

The absence of both taxes to fund the infrastructure proposal marks a shift from Buttigieg's comments Friday.

"I think that shows a lot of promise," Buttigieg said of the mileage tax. "If we believe in that so-called user pays principle, the idea that part of how we pay for roads is you pay based on how much you drive.... The gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it -- it's not anymore, so a so-called vehicle-miles-traveled tax or mileage tax, whatever you want to call it, could be a way to do it... [I]f there's a way to do it that doesn't increase the burden on the middle class, we can look at it, but if we do, we've got to recognize that's still not going to be the long-term answer."

That was last Friday, after which Buttigieg got "roasted" (according to The Week). The big problem with that "user pays principle" is that richer people live in the more close-in suburbs and have the benefit of a shorter commute, and the poorer people who must buy further-out real estate and put up with a longer commute would now be expected to pay more for their opposite-of-privilege.

Here's Buttigieg displaying absurd glibness embracing the principle and acting like he and that principle never met:

As @jaketapper says after, "something of a backtrack" on this:https://t.co/FBafw2Tudx

— The Recount (@therecount) March 29, 2021