Chasten Buttigieg, who is married to former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, called out Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy for taking two of his sons on a presidential delegation to the Daytona 500 this past weekend.
Duffy, a former Fox News host, posted a video to X on Sunday with his sons, Patrick and John-Paul, right before they boarded Air Force One, which was headed to the Daytona 500.
“We’re about to get on Air Force One. I got Patrick and John-Paul. There’s just the back end of it,” Duffy said in the video, gesturing to the back of the plane. “Heading up to Daytona for the 500. Suit and tie. Beautiful day. Hopefully, the rain stays out.”
“But these guys, first time, Air Force One. The president is about to get here, so we’re going to get on, get rolling to Daytona…. It’s going to be great,” he added.
In a post on X, Chasten Buttigieg responded to the video, recalling the blowback his husband faced when he led a presidential delegation to the Invictus Games, a sporting competition for wounded veterans, and took Chasten with him.
“I remember when Fox News absolutely melted when a certain Secretary took a family member on a presidential delegation,” Chasten Buttigieg wrote. “Let’s see how this one plays out.”
In 2023, Fox News Digital reported that the Transportation secretary at the time took his husband on the presidential delegation to the Invictus Games and that they flew in a private military aircraft.
Pete Buttigieg at the time pointed out that diplomatic protocol has long been that the official is accompanied by their spouse and said he did not reimburse the cost of his husband’s travel. Buttigieg suggested there was a double standard applied to him and his husband.
“Before me, it was the Secretary of the Army under President Trump who took that trip with his wife,” Pete Buttigieg said when asked in a Fox News interview about the reporting. “Before that, it was Mrs. Trump as first lady who went to the Invictus Games. Before that, Mrs. Obama did the same thing.”
“And I guess the question on my mind is, if no one’s raising questions about why Secretary Esper and his wife led that delegation — and as well, they should have — then why is it any different when it’s me and my husband?” Buttigieg continued at the time.
The Hill has reached out to the Department of Transportation for comment.
