DETROIT — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he's raising his children to "have better values" than Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, who called him a "weak little girl" on Twitter earlier this week.
"If she wants to talk about little girls, Chasten and I are raising a little girl and a little boy. And we are raising them to have better values than the chairwoman," he said. "The rest is politics."
Buttigieg is the nation's first openly gay, Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary and a former officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. The Buttigieges announced last August they had adopted twin babies.
On Sunday afternoon, Maddock shared a tweet from the Republican National Committee that featured video of Buttigieg talking about California's plan to ban new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035 and saying the country needs to "move in the direction of electric vehicles."
"We’re so blessed this weak little girl moved to Michigan," Maddock wrote in her tweet about the video. "Looks like he’s bringing all his California Dreaming here with him."
Maddock's comments drew immediate blowback from Democrats and some Republicans as homophobic.
"When I saw this tweet I was disgusted," GOP state Rep. Jack O'Malley of Lake Ann wrote Monday on Facebook. "I mean we are in an era of name-calling and disrespect. It needs to stop. Disagreeing is one thing but insults and slurs…enough."
State Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, said Republicans are "better than this" in response to Maddock's tweet about Buttigieg.
"Denigrating slurs and highly personal insults have no space in respectful political discourse," Schmidt wrote on Facebook. "We can disagree on policy without engaging in this type of behavior."
Gustavo Portela, spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, declined to comment on Maddock's tweet earlier this week. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel participated in a campaign event in Howell on Monday afternoon but declined a reporter's request for an interview.
Buttigieg and his husband Chasten officially made Michigan their home earlier this year, settling near Traverse City where Chasten grew up. Political analysts say the move could set up Buttigieg to run for statewide office in Michigan.
Asked about Maddock's tweet, Lavora Barnes, chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said Democrats will use it to raise money and rally voters to action.
"But I am not responding to homophobic crazy," Barnes said.
Michigan Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, who is gay, tweeted that homophobia was "the most thought-out, detailed and consistent brand for the Michigan Republican Party."
Maddock's tweet came on the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
Buttigieg served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from the South Bend mayor’s office for deployment to Afghanistan in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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Staff reporter Craig Mauger contributed to this report.
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