This column was originally published by TheStatehouseFile.com.
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com
June 29, 2026
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg became the target of a particularly ugly political dirty trick.
Someone filed an anonymous complaint with Child Protective Services that said Buttigieg was an unfit parent.
Before we go any further, we need to make clear that the complaint was entirely without merit. During the investigation that followed, the CPS agents determined that the charges against Buttigieg were false and politically motivated.
There also doubtless was mean-spirited bigotry involved.
Buttigieg is a gay man with a legitimate chance of being president of the United States someday. That enrages some folks, people who think that they’re the ones being persecuted because the law doesn’t allow them to tell everyone else how to live life or whom to love.
The result of this cruel act is that Buttigieg, his husband Chasten and their twin four-year-olds had their lives torn apart for a couple of days. The children were taken out of the home as the whole thing became almost Kafkaesque.
Even though the investigation determined that Buttigieg had done nothing wrong and the twins were returned to their parents, damage was done.
Who knows how those young children will process the fact that anyone with a political grudge against their father could take them from their home? Who knows how long it will be before anyone in that family sleeps securely again?
In the aftermath of this despicable episode, much of the discussion focused on Buttigieg’s sexual orientation and the ongoing and unreasoning prejudice in this country against gay people.
That’s obviously a legitimate concern, but it isn’t the only reason this incident matters.
Buttigieg—as he so often does—put his finger on the other line that was crossed during this bit of nasty partisan maneuvering. In a piece posted on Substack, he wrote that people’s children should be off-limits in political battles.
Yes, they should be.
And for much of our history they have been.
Elected officials, political professionals and journalists have all worked to see that children were kept out of the political wars.
The reasoning behind this unwritten rule was simple. Adults—candidates and spouses—have the capacity to choose public life, but their children don’t. They often get dragged along for the ride and shouldn’t be punished for their parents’ choices unless they do something particularly egregious.
The enforcement of this rule could be fierce.
When leading Republicans went to Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974 to tell him he had to resign the presidency or the U.S. Senate—with GOP support–would vote to remove him, the conventional wisdom was that the party chieftains did so because they were afraid of an electoral slaughter in the November elections.
There was truth to that, but it wasn’t the whole truth.
Those GOP powerhouses also were furious because Nixon had sent his daughters, Tricia and Julie, out on the stump during the Watergate crisis in a bid for sympathy support.
That broke the code.
It put politicians’ children in the field of fire. The Republican heavyweights weren’t willing to expose their own kids to harm to protect Dick Nixon.
That code has held through the years.
I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have received calls about some child of an Indiana elected official who has misbehaved.
Generally, the misbehavior—a minor drug bust, underage drinking or an act of vandalism—wouldn’t merit coverage if the kid weren’t related to someone prominent.
Inevitably, the “tip” is politically motivated, an attempt to embarrass the parent, a public official with whom the caller disagrees.
Unless the offense rises to a serious level, such as a homicide or sexual assault, or reveals tremendous hypocrisy, as in cases where politicians and their children preach sexual abstinence while practicing promiscuity, I always thank the person for calling, hang up and move on to something else.
Most people read Buttigieg’s Substack piece and its assertion that children should be off-limits as a complaint.
It was, but I also detected a warning.
If his children aren’t off-limits, Buttigieg seemed to hint, then no politician’s kids should be.
If that is where this goes, that will be beyond unfortunate.
It will be tragic.
That is why both Democrats and Republicans should condemn the wrong done to Pete Buttigieg and his family.
They should do so loudly.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Also, the views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
