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Buttigieg Goes On Offense as Republicans Attack
From GOP Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, to the State of Florida’s CFO, to Republicans in Congress, the far right has put a target on Pete Buttigieg‘s back.
Freshman U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who attended an event in December that included U.S. Rep. George Santos and white nationalists, on Monday called for Secretary Buttigieg to resign. On Tuesday he suggested the House should impeach him.
Why?
Collins said Buttigieg was “hired to check a diversity box,” and claims his “focus on wokeness prevents him from assessing the root cause of transportation incidents.” In Collins’ Fox News op-ed and a follow-up Fox News interview the word “woke” appears six times.
It all seems to have begun last year in July when Buttigieg criticized U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for calling protecting the marriages of same-sex couples with a federal law a “stupid waste of time.”
“If he’s got time to fight against Disney,” Buttigieg said, referring to the GOP’s attack on the entertainment giant after it voiced concern about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, “I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine. But this is really, really important to a lot of people. It’s certainly important to me.”
Rubio tried to fight back via video, which was quickly panned by many on social media, often criticizing the Florida Republican’s claim that protecting marriages of same-sex couples was a “fake problem.”
In December, Rubio attacked Buttigieg again, this time by using his position to ask the Dept. of Transportation’s Inspector General – a Trump appointee – to open an investigation into Buttigieg for using private or government planes 18 times.
In his press release touting his call to investigate Buttigieg, Rubio writes: “Flashback. In 2017, House Democrats sent a similar letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General following reports the secretary used private jets on multiple occasions.”
In 2017 the President was Donald Trump and the HHS Secretary was Tom Price, who was investigated after spending more than $1 million on transportation in just four months. He ultimately was forced to reign in disgrace. Buttigieg in two years has spent $41,000 on non-commercial flights.
Sec. Buttigieg has used private aircraft 18 times in two years, and The Washington Post reports “the Transportation Department said that of 138 flights Buttigieg has taken since being sworn in early in 2021, 119 have been on commercial airlines.”
His immediate predecessor, Elaine Chao, in just her first year spent $94,000 on non-commercial flights.
READ MORE: Federal Agencies Knew of Several Jan. 6 Threats Against Democrats Says Government Watchdog
“The fact remains that he flies commercially the vast majority of the time,” DOT spokesperson Kerry Arndt said. “The exceptions have been when the Department’s career ethics officials, who have served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, determined that the use of a 9-seat FAA plane would be either more cost effective or should be approved for exceptional scheduling or security reasons.”
And yet, on Monday the DOT IG opened an investigation.
On Monday Buttigieg tweeted, “Glad this will be reviewed independently so misleading narratives can be put to rest.”
Sen Rubio has also called on Buttigieg to resign for not immediately heading to East Palestine, Ohio, the scene of the Norfolk Southern toxic train crash – despite previous Transportation Secretaries not going to crash sites, and despite numerous federal agency officials who did and still are on scene.
Buttigieg had no trouble responding.
Buttigieg: Well, the strange thing about hearing that from Senator Rubio is that the last time I had gotten a communication from him about railroad regulation was when he had signed a letter asking us to weaken our inspection practices. pic.twitter.com/RK0WVvfkmJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 24, 2023
CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere notes that before he called for Buttigieg to resign, Rubio called for less train inspection by humans.
Four months before writing a letter demanding Sec. Buttigieg’s resignation over “intentional ignorance” in lack of oversight about the Ohio train derailment, Sen. Rubio co-signed a letter with 22 colleagues pushing for waivers to allow more automation in train inspections – pic.twitter.com/tO7hm2nA0p
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 18, 2023
Just last week House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer published a letter launching an investigation into Transportation Buttigieg in the wake of the Norfolk Southern toxic train derailment. But Buttigieg was forced to correct Comer who wrongly claimed the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was a part of the Dept. of Transportation.
“I am alarmed to learn that the Chair of the House Oversight Committee thinks that the NTSB is part of our Department,” Buttigieg said. “NTSB is independent (and with good reason). Still, of course, we will fully review this and respond appropriately.”
Also last week disgraced former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called for Buttigieg to be fired – framing him as the target for all GOP claims of Biden issues.
“Incompetence should not be accepted. Joe Biden should fire DOT Sec. Buttigieg and bring accountability to failures of his administration,” Gingrich tweeted.
On Tuesday Buttigieg appeared on CNN to respond to U.S. Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attack on him.
“Secretary Buttigieg has seemed more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to basic elements of his day job,” McConnell had said on the Senate floor.
Buttigieg noted that McConnell had no problem showing up in his home state of Kentucky when a major bridge was replaced under the Biden administration’s infrastructure law.
“I would not call the Brent Spence Bridge a ‘woke’ initiative,” Buttigieg retorted. “As for climate, climate is not ‘nonsense.'”
Buttigieg also encouraged McConnell to “be a partner to us, right now, in making sure there are fewer rail disasters in the future.”
“The freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington. I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them. There are specific things that could be done right now,” he said.
WATCH: @SecretaryPete responds to GOP criticism for handling of East Palestine disaster:
“The freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington. I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them.” pic.twitter.com/EbDRPT4jyO
— CNN This Morning (@CNNThisMorning) February 28, 2023
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The Trump administration reportedly has plans to scrape your private medical data from sources like your doctor, your pharmacy, your insurance company, the lab that processes your bloodwork, your smartwatch, and your fitness apps—to create a “registry” of people with autism.
“The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new effort to study autism,” CBS News reported. “The new data will allow external researchers picked for Kennedy’s autism studies to study ‘comprehensive’ patient data with ‘broad coverage’ of the U.S. population for the first time, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said.”
CBS also adds that “a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the data. Advocacy groups and experts have called out Kennedy for describing autism as a ‘preventable disease,’ which they say is stigmatizing and unfounded.”
“By bringing the data into one place,” Bhattacharya “said it could give health agencies a window into ‘real-time health monitoring’ on Americans for studying other health problems too.”
“What we’re proposing is a transformative real-world data initiative, which aims to provide a robust and secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research,” he said.
READ MORE: Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
Critics warn that a registry of people with autism poses great privacy and health risks, while others wonder about HIPAA violations—especially in light of what some say is Secretary Kennedy’s apparent bias against autism and people on the spectrum.
Last week, Secretary Kennedy’s remarks about children with autism drew intense fire.
“This is an individual tragedy,” Kennedy declared (video below). “Autism destroys families. And more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which our children. These are children who should not be, who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional, and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they’re two years old.”
“And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children,” he alleged, to widespread criticism.
“How are they going to collect all this data without violating HIPAA laws and privacy protection?” Dr. Joel Shulkin asked, as The Daily Dot reported. “How are they going to de-identify all the data so that it cannot be misused against people who are involved in it? And what are they planning to do with that data once they finish their so-called study?”
ASAN, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, warned: “There is no indication that autistic people whose data is being taken would be afforded any say in whether their data is used or what it is used for. This raises significant moral, legal, and practical concerns. People have a right to decide what is done with data about their health. Unethical science is bad science.”
“Medical data can also easily be manipulated by unscrupulous researchers to create the appearance of causation where it does not exist,” ASAN added. “This has already happened this year with an anti-vaccine ‘study’ about autism that RFK Jr. approvingly cited during his confirmation hearing. The study, which was not published in a reputable scientific journal and did not go through peer review, used Medicaid data from Florida to show that children who had doctors visits to receive vaccinations were statistically more likely to also have doctors visits to receive care for autism.”
And the National Consumers League warns that “RFK Jr.’s autism study will pull private medical records, pharmacy data, insurance claims—even data from your fitness tracker—all under the banner of a flawed and stigmatizing narrative that autism is a ‘preventable disease.’ This kind of data grab raises serious questions about privacy, consent, and how personal health info could be misused in the name of speculative science.”
“RFK Jr.’s proposed national autism registry is straight-up dystopian,” declared Democratic strategist Chris D. Jackson. “Centralizing private medical data—from pharmacies, labs, fitness trackers, even veterans—and handing it to third parties? That’s not research. That’s surveillance. Let’s be clear: this echoes the darkest chapters of history, when regimes like Nazi Germany used medical registries to target and dehumanize vulnerable populations.”
READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
“And calling autism a ‘preventable tragedy’? That’s not science—it’s dangerous, ableist propaganda. Autistic people deserve respect, not to be tracked, labeled, or erased.”
Dr. Kristin Lyerly, who hosts The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show, wrote: “I am very concerned about this effort for so many reasons, including health privacy and respect for people and families living with autism. This reeks of eugenics.”
“First RFK Jr says that people on the autism spectrum are useless eaters,” noted Yale Professor of History Timothy Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism. “And then he announces that the government is going to make a list of them, a ‘registry.'”
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, like many social media users, wrote: “Nazis did registries by the way.”
Fred Wellman, a West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School graduate, an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, and now a political consultant and the host of the podcast “On Democracy,” blasted the Trump administration:
“RFK Jr. wants to create a national registry of people with autism. The Admin wants to increase baby supply with a motherhood medal. Trump wants to deport US citizens to a third world gulag. They formed an Anti-Christian Bias Task Force to prosecute people for their speech. A White House advisor is floating arresting Americans for speaking in support of immigrants as terror supporters. Does this all sound familiar?”
Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic Instructor Alejandra Caraballo warned: “This won’t be limited to just autism. They’re building the panopticon to track anyone with any ‘undesirable’ illness. This is eugenics, full stop.”
Fred Guttenberg, an anti-gun violence activist who lost his daughter in the Parkland mass school shooting, wrote: “Help me understand how these lunatics who spent years fighting me on gun safety & used the idea of a government registry to create fear, now believe in a government registry to track people with autism. Everything they say is a lie, & everything they do is designed to hurt people.”
A user on the social media platform X posted this response:
“I’m autistic And when I heard RFK Jr. wants a government registry to track people like me using private medical records I didn’t think ‘safety’ I thought Nazi Germany A roundup’s of disabled people Because I know history And I know exactly what comes after the list is made This isn’t about health This is about control It’s about fear It’s about marking people People like me Neurodivergent people Different people Don’t dress it up as policy This is how roundups begin You want to stop autism discrimination? Start by not creating a fucking list.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
RFK JR: And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted pic.twitter.com/8T3hcYYn9O
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
Image via Shutterstock
President Donald Trump announced he will be sitting for an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who was erroneously included in a group chat about military strikes in Yemen and subsequently broke the SignalGate story.
Trump suggested he agreed to the interview with Goldberg and two other reporters because of the supposed title of the proposed article: “The Most Consequential President of this Century.” And while there have only been four presidents this century, including himself, Trump appeared happy to indulge the reporters in exchange for the compliment.
“Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
“Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly! The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, ‘The Most Consequential President of this Century.’ I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!”
Despite Trump’s dismissals, the “suckers and losers” stories were well-documented, fact-based reporting, as was the SignalGate story.
Finance journalist James Surowiecki of Fast Company and The Atlantic, writes, “This may be my favorite Trump tweet ever – it’s him in a nutshell. He attacks Jeff Goldberg, and complains about The Atlantic. But of course he’s going to do the interview, because he can’t resist being the focus of attention, and being labeled ‘The Most Consequential President.'”
READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
Yahoo Finance’s Jordan Weissmann adds, “Trump grudgingly admitting Goldberg was ‘somewhat more successful’ with SignalGate is one of the funniest ‘OK, you got us there’ moments I’ve ever seen.”
Earlier this month Goldberg, speaking about his SignalGate article and Trump, said: “I’m not going to be bullied, because there’s no end to the bullying if you agree to be bullied in the first place. If there are consequences to not bending, fine.”
“It beats selling your soul.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
“If the president of the United States says we’re lying, and I have the truth, I’m going to publish the truth”: Jeffrey Goldberg on The Atlantic’s decision to publish the Signal chats following the Trump administration’s initial response to the leak. https://t.co/YZ5mSWNKr8 pic.twitter.com/kPtAIJhOao
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) April 3, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
Image via Reuters
With seemingly near-daily revelations about U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s alleged—and potentially unlawful—leaks of classified or sensitive information, concerns over his leadership, judgment, and efforts to reshape the Department of Defense, pressure for his resignation or removal and even prosecution is rapidly intensifying.
Hegseth, confirmed by the narrowest of margins (51-50), is one of the youngest (44) Defense Secretaries, and had already been one of the most controversial. His Senate hearings were flooded with allegations and questions about sexual assault, use of alcohol, infidelities, position on women in combat, previous alleged poor leadership and financial mismanagement at several small nonprofits, and general lack of experience—sans his weekend gig as a Fox News host.
Hegseth’s repeated use of the insecure messaging app Signal on his cellphone, from which he reportedly shared sensitive and classified military strike secrets—in at least two separate instances, including one with his wife, brother, and personal attorney—alone, some say, should have led to his firing and prosecution.
“If a ‘regular’ clearance holder did this, almost assuredly they would lose their security clearance,” remarked national security attorney Mark Zaid, pointing to this NBC News report. “Given it is literally imminent military strike planning, not inconceivable prosecution would be on the table. In normal times. This ain’t that.”
READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
More recent news that he directed to have Signal installed on his Defense Department computer, that he spent thousands in Pentagon funds to construct a “makeup room” for TV spots, that his security credentials, including personal cell phone number, email address and password, and WhatsApp account were posted on the dark web, and the “disarray” in his inner circle, have served to strengthen the calls for his firing, resignation, or prosecution—and continued downplaying by the Trump administration.
“President Donald Trump is unlikely to dismiss Hegseth and has spoken to him twice since The New York Times and CNN reported on the second Signal group on Sunday night,” CNN reported Wednesday. “In their first call, Trump said he had Hegseth’s back and voiced frustration at ‘leakers’ he said were trying to damage his administration, according to a person familiar with the conversation.”
CNN also reports that “Hegseth’s most trusted advisers are now his wife, his lawyer and his junior military aide, who may soon be appointed his new chief of staff, multiple people familiar with the matter said.” Hegseth’s wife is a former Fox News producer who is not a Pentagon employee. It is “unclear,” the news network reported separately, if she has a security clearance.
“The Pentagon is in ‘total chaos’ and Hegseth is unlikely to remain in his role, according to its former top spokesperson, who painted a scene of dysfunction, backstabbing and continuous missteps at the highest levels of DOD,” Politico Deputy Managing Editor of Global Security Dave Brown reported Sunday evening.
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
“Chaos in the world’s most lethal fighting force is an open invitation to our enemies,” responded U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a, Iraq War veteran who served in the Marines for over a decade. “Amateur hour with Hegseth. Time to resign.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s denouncement of classified inform action leaking on Wednesday also served to invite anger, upset, and concern over Hegseth’s actions.
“Politicization of our intelligence and leaking classified information puts our nation’s security at risk and must end,” Gabbard, Trump controversial DNI wrote. “Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Today, I referred two intelligence community LEAKS to the Department of Justice for criminal referral, with a third criminal referral on its way, which includes the recent illegal leak to the Washington Post. These deep-state criminals leaked classified information for partisan political purposes to undermine POTUS’ agenda. I look forward to working with @TheJusticeDept and @FBI to investigate, terminate and prosecute these criminals.”
The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, the renowned political scientist, commented to Gabbard: “I am looking forward to the time when you refer Pete Hegseth for criminal prosecution.”
Calls for Hegseth’s ouster—one way or another—have flooded social media this week.
“When the Secretary of Defense screws up,” commented U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA), servicemembers’ lives are on the line. Pete Hegseth has shown time and time again he screws up way too much to do this job. He must resign or be fired.”
“The first thing they make you do before going into a classified meeting is to remove your phone,” noted U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), an awarded former U.S. Air Force Colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. “Why? Because phones can be hacked. (Eg look up Pegasus spyware). Hegseth using his personal phone multiple times to reveal combat operations is a dereliction of duty. He must resign.”
“Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent,” wrote U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH). “For our national security and the safety of our troops, Pete Hegseth must resign or be removed from his position.”
“Being the Secretary of Defense is serious business and it’s clear he’s not up to it. Hegseth needs to resign or be fired,” observed U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who served for 25 years in the U.S.Navy, including as a NASA astronaut who spent 54 days in space.
Awarded Iraq War veteran U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate who served as an Army Captain in the Military Intelligence Corps, urged President Trump to fire Hegseth.
“Will Donald Trump, who made his reputation for quote unquote firing people, actually fire this guy and make our country safe again and really support our troops?” Congressman Ryan asked. “That’s what every American should be asking.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Want to “Make America Safe Again” @realDonaldTrump?
FIRE Pete Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/YGUvCFRBz6
— Pat Ryan 🇺🇸 (@PatRyanUC) April 24, 2025
READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him
Image via Reuters
‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons
Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons
Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
