.jpeg?trim=1,0,398,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "Pete Buttigieg’s spouse slams Transportation Secretary over new TV reality show – and his wife hits back – UK Times")
The husband of former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg offered up sharp criticism in response to news that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spent some of the past year creating a reality TV show.
Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, announced Friday on Fox News that a new series titled The Great American Road Trip was filmed with their nine children to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. “It’s more than a road trip, it’s a civic experience,” Duffy says, in the show’s trailer.
But Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Biden-era Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, blasted the Duffys for their apparent hypocrisy and alleged they were out of touch at a time when many Americans are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
“The same Duffys who threw endless fits on national television when Pete was working from our son’s ICU bedside are now bragging about their multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip while gas and grocery prices soar for American families because of Trump’s war of choice,” Chasten Buttigieg wrote on X. “How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?”
His post prompted a fiery response on X from Campos-Duffy: “Stand down, Chas. All production costs were paid for by the non-profit, The Great American Road Trip, Inc. No one in my family – including my husband – were paid to do this. We did it for FREE to celebrate America 250 & encourage other Americans to get off couches & screens and spend time together seeing our country. It was filmed in small one and two day stops over the course of seven months.”
Campos-Duffy then claimed that her husband had achieved more in one year to remake the Transportation Department than Pete Buttigieg had done over the course of his four-year tenure.
Secretary Duffy also weighed in Saturday.
“The radical, miserable left has noticed our awesome Great American Road Trip trailer… and they hate it,” he wrote on X before reiterating that the show was privately funded and that “career ethics and budget officials” approved his participation.
In recent years, Duffy and Pete Buttigieg have frequently sparred. Duffy has accused his predecessor of focusing on the wrong priorities, like DEI initiatives, and nicknamed him “No-show Pete,” claiming he rarely stepped foot into the Transportation Department’s offices.
This attack was used by a number of right-wing personalities after the Buttigiegs announced in September 2021 that they had adopted newborn twins.
Podcaster Candace Owens criticized Pete Buttigieg — the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member — as “sickeningly pathetic” for taking two months of parental leave. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson remarked on air: “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.”
It was not immediately clear from reporting by The Independent that the Duffys had been part of the criticism of Pete Buttigieg for missing work due to his children.
The Independent has reached out to the Transportation Department for comment.
Pete Buttigieg has accused Duffy of dismantling airline industry protections he put in place. On Friday, he also reacted to the Duffys’ reality TV show announcement.
“I love a good road trip, but this is brutally out of touch: a Trump Cabinet member making a documentary about himself while regular families can’t afford road trips anymore, because Trump and his war put gas prices through the roof,” Pete Buttigieg wrote on X.
Currently, transportation costs are straining many Americans’ budgets.
The ongoing war in Iran has driven oil prices sharply higher, pushing gasoline prices up with them. On Saturday, the average price per gallon reached $4.53, a steep increase from $2.98 just before the conflict began, according to AAA.
Jet fuel costs have also surged, prompting some airlines to raise ticket prices, increase baggage fees, and cut certain routes. Earlier this month, Spirit Airlines went out of business as a result of several financial pressures, including the dramatic uptick in fuel costs.
