Watchdog: Buttigieg Refused Meetings With Democrats and Republicans During Paternity Leave
- January 12, 2023
Karen Townsend, HotAir
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is facing tough questions about how he handles crises facing his department. The latest crisis, the grounding of every plane in America for the first since 9/11/01, shines a light on what exactly it is that Buttigieg does on the job.
Now, as questions about his performance in office are asked, Pete rather defensively declares that everyone knows that in a job such as his, he must be available 24/7. You’d think everyone would know that. But does Pete? It turns out that it looks like Pete was turning down requests for calls and zoom meetings with both Democrat and Republican lawmakers while he was home with his new little family. He was, in fact, not available 24/7. On Thursday, government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) released information showing that inconvenient truth.
As he told CNN’s Jake Tapper in October, Pete was available at any time, even if it meant taking phone calls in the hospital. PPT provided a quote from the interview in its press release.
For example, PPT has obtained documents via a FOIA lawsuit that show Pete denied a request by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for a phone call during his paternity leave.
The Director of PPT, Michael Chamberlain, released a statement:
“As a father myself, I understand that being a parent is the most important job in the world,” stated Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust. “But the Secretary of Transportation’s obligations to the American public are 24/7, as Secretary Buttigieg has admitted. It appears as though, during his paternity leave, he was not always available when called upon and did not have some necessary contingencies in place to ensure the continuity of operations at DOT. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that so many crises involving the Department, from the supply chain breakdown to the FAA system outage that grounded flights all over the country, have occurred on his watch.”