A prominent Democrat from Joe Biden’s administration, then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has expressed rage when he was targeted by an often-political tactic commonly used against Republicans.

SWATTING.

That’s when someone turns in a false report of possible danger to police, and they respond to the unknowing victim’s location, often with SWAT teams.

Buttigieg, with his homosexual partner, reportedly were separated from their 4-year-old adopted children for a number of hours after the recent attack.

“This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious. Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal,” he charged.

This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious.

Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal. https://t.co/72wxaVLzVT

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) June 26, 2026

Pete Buttigieg said on Friday that he and his husband were kept away from their 4-year-old twins after an anonymous report falsely accused Buttigieg of posing a threat to their children. The separation lasted for 24 hours, he said. https://t.co/5hk19Y49Vl

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 26, 2026

Such tactics in recent years often have been used against Republicans. Then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and at the time an advocate form President Donald Trump’s agendas, has confirmed at least eight known SWATTING attempts against her.

Nearly a dozen Republican state lawmakers in Indiana also reported incidents in recent months.

The U.S. Secret Service confirmed just weeks ago that Thomasz Szabo, 27, of Romania, was jailed for four years for his role in a SWATTING ring that targeted 75 public officials, four religious institutions and others.

“Members of Congress, cabinet officials, the heads of federal law enforcement agencies, churches, journalists — Thomasz Szabo and his followers targeted them all with swatting calls and fake bomb threats designed to send armed police to their doors,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “This administration will not tolerate attacks on the institutions and individuals who serve this country. Szabo was extradited from Romania to face justice in an American courtroom, and today he has reaped the consequences of his actions.”

“Mr. Szabo deliberately wasted public resources and recklessly put the lives of innocent people at risk for his own amusement,” said Tara McLeese, the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office. “Today’s sentencing reaffirms that swatting is not a prank, and those that perpetrate this crime will be held accountable. We are thankful to our U.S. and international law enforcement partners as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their assistance in this case.”

A report at the Daily Mail said Buttigieg, who was appointed by Biden to the Cabinet post, then immediately took months of leave for the adoption of the children, was contacted by a Michigan state police officer and a child protective services worker in his Traverse City home following a report.

“Authorities arranged forensic interviews for his twins and instructed him not to be alone with them until the interviews were complete,” the report said.

Authorities confirmed they got an anonymous report, and when they investigated determined it was false.

“Buttigieg said investigators told him the anonymous caller claimed he had confessed years earlier to violent crimes during a chance meeting in Alabama,” the Mail reported. “The ex-presidential candidate said he had never been to the town where the meeting allegedly occurred.”

Further, Child Protective Services found nothing to confirm the report.

“I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this,” Buttigieg wrote. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is.”

Buttigieg was Kamala Harris’ first pick as running mate in her catastrophically failed 2024 presidential bid, but she reported she went another direction because of the “optics of his sexuality paired with her gender and race.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.