US must rethink attitude to parental leave, Pete Buttigieg says

The US needs a fundamental rethink of its attitudes towards parenting, according to Pete Buttigieg, who was the target of criticism from conservatives for taking leave to care for his newborn children.

Buttigieg, the US transport secretary, came under attack after he took time to help care for his newborn twins, a boy and a girl, in August.

Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said Buttigieg was “absent during a transportation crisis” while Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, told his audience: “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.”

Carlson’s remarks were widely seen as a homophobic attack on Buttigieg, who is gay.

Buttigieg told the Guardian that he found the reaction baffling. “Leaving aside the hospitalization, part of me just wondered: how do they think my kids eat? They have two dads – do they think I just leave them with a can opener and directions to the fridge?”