Buttigieg details false report that briefly separated him from twins

A false abuse allegation sent a police officer and a Child Protective Services worker to Pete Buttigieg’s Traverse City home and briefly separated him from his 4-year-old twins for about 24 hours. In a new interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, Buttigieg called it “one of the most awful moments” of his life.

The complaint reached Michigan Child Protective Services as an anonymous report, not as a traditional police swatting call, but it still triggered an urgent response at Buttigieg’s home in northern Michigan. Buttigieg said the caller claimed he had confessed to “unspeakable violent crimes” to a woman he supposedly met at a conference in Alabama, and he said he had never been to that Alabama location. Michigan State Police later confirmed they received an anonymous report and determined it was false.

Authorities said the children were interviewed separately by trained personnel before the claim was ruled out. Michigan State Police said false reports are dangerous because they pull law enforcement and child welfare workers away from legitimate emergencies, a warning that has taken on sharper urgency as public officials and their families face more politically charged intimidation.

Buttigieg described the episode as a “politically motivated hoax” and said it happened during Pride Month, suggesting it may have been rooted in anti-LGBTQ animus. He said he hopes the person responsible is found and prosecuted. The case involved his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, and their twins, Gus and Penelope, whom the couple adopted in 2021.

The incident has drawn bipartisan condemnation and renewed attention to swatting-style harassment that now extends beyond classic police false alarms. In Buttigieg’s case, the tactic moved through the child-welfare system and still produced the same effect: strangers at the door, two children taken aside, and a family left to absorb the shock of an allegation that never had any basis in fact.