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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday that he was briefly separated from his 4-year-old twin children after an anonymous caller reported false accusations to Child Protective Services (CPS).
In a Substack post titled “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family,” the former Biden administration official said he was the subject of a “swatting” incident, a type of harassment in which someone issues a false emergency report.
Buttigieg wrote that he was separated from his children for 24 hours while CPS conducted forensic interviews. The former secretary called this time period “among the darkest hours of my life.”
The Democrat said that a CPS worker and a police officer showed up at his house in Traverse City, Mich., after an anonymous caller claimed that he had spoken with a woman whom Buttigieg had personally told at a conference that he “had committed unspeakable violent crimes.”
Buttigieg said he had never been to the Alabama town where this alleged conversation occurred and that the police officer “made clear that he believed this was politically motivated.” Additionally, Buttigieg said that CPS found nothing in its investigation to substantiate this report.
Michigan State Police told The Associated Press in a statement that they received an “anonymous report” and that their officers and CPS “responded and determined the report was false.” The Hill has reached out to Michigan State Police about the incident.
“Many times over the years, I have been denounced, yelled at, protested, threatened, and heckled,” Buttigieg wrote. “I’ve been through political attacks in office, death threats in public life, and rocket attacks in war. But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began.”
Buttigieg, who is gay and married to a man, noted the timing of the threat shortly after Father’s Day and during Pride Month.
“We’re used to nasty, hateful, and sometimes violent things being said about us and even about our family,” he wrote. “But this is the first time someone managed to invade our lives like this – and drag our children into it.”
More broadly, the former secretary pointed to an increased incidence in reports of political violence and threats in recent years.
An April report from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs found a “serious escalation” in the risk environment for political violence in 2025. Additionally, U.S. Capitol Police said earlier this year that the number of threats the agency investigated jumped by nearly 60 percent in 2025.
“Everyone knows politics is ugly these days,” Buttigieg wrote. “It’s always been ugly, but now it feels more and more like bloodsport.
“Cruelty, lies, and even deadly violence have been directed at political figures across the ideological spectrum,” he continued. “Generally everyone agrees this has to stop, even as our country (and public figures) get all too used to it.”
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