Pete Buttigieg Defends Family Leave After Being Mocked by Fox News Anchor

The transportation secretary says it's time for the U.S. to join "pretty much every other country in the world" on paid family leave

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at press conference with Senator Charles Schumer to green light Gateway Tunnel Project at Amtrak Concourse of Penn Station.
Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images In this June 28, 2021, file photo, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at press conference with Senator Charles Schumer to green light Gateway Tunnel Project at Amtrak Concourse of Penn Station.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended paid family leave Sunday after Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked him for taking paternity leave to care for his newborn twins.

"When somebody welcomes a new child into their family and goes on leave to take care of that child, that's not a vacation. It's work. It's joyful, wonderful, fulfilling work, but it is work," Buttigieg said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

On Thursday, Carlson said: "Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went."

Politico reported last week that Buttigieg had been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their twin babies, Penelope and Joseph.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg shares what it was like to attend his first meeting in the Oval Office, which he had to do remotely because he was in coronavirus quarantine.
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