Pete Buttigieg: US Secretary of Transportation defends his parental leave

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (right) with husband Chasten during the 2019 Democratic presidential primary election

Photo: JOSHUA LOTT / AFP

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has defended his paternity leave.

The Democratic politician will not apologize to anyone for taking care of his twins, Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday.

The 39-year-old and his husband Chasten adopted newborn twins this summer.

Buttigieg said he was proud to have taken parental leave.

He is the first openly gay federal minister in the United States.

The right-wing populist TV presenter Tucker Carlson made fun of Buttigieg on his Fox News program last week.

He's trying to figure out how to breastfeed, he scoffed.

"As you can imagine, we bottle-feed our children - at any time of the day or night," said Buttigieg.

It is "joyful, fulfilling, wonderful work," and everyone in the United States should have the opportunity to do so after having a child.

The United States has no legal regulation on paid parental leave - only a few states have legal entitlements.

Buttigieg responds to Fox News' malice

Buttigieg had previously reacted to Carlson's statement and noted that it was strange that criticism came from a party that always presented itself as family-friendly.

Buttigieg took parental leave in mid-August.

Critics complained that the USA is currently struggling with major delivery bottlenecks - a problem that also falls within Buttigieg's portfolio.

He emphasized that he could always be reached during parental leave.

Buttigieg applied for the presidential candidacy of the US Democrats in 2020.

Until the end of 2019 he was mayor of the 100,000-inhabitant city of South Bend in the US state of Indiana.

US President Joe Biden eventually made Buttigieg his Secretary of Transportation.

jso / dpa