On Saturday morning’s The Weekend on MS NOW, co-hosts Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels, and Jackie Alemany reacted with visible emotion — Capehart especially overcome — to Pete Buttigieg’s Substack post detailing an anonymous false report to Child Protective Services that temporarily upended his family.
The incident was undeniably serious: An unidentified caller alleged Buttigieg confessed to “unspeakable violent crimes” during a supposed meeting in Alabama. Police and CPS responded. Buttigieg was separated from his four-year-old twins for 24 hours pending interviews.
Authorities quickly found the claims unsubstantiated, with the officer reportedly deeming the call politically motivated. Buttigieg noted he has never been to the town in question.
Capehart introduced the segment with visible distress:
“This story is enraging on so many levels. As Secretary Buttigieg pointed out, this is Pride Month, LGBTQ Pride Month… I think leaders should step out there and say that as Secretary Pete points out in his piece, in politics, children are supposed to be sacrosanct. You’re supposed to leave them alone. These are four-year-olds, four-year-olds!”
Daniels piled on with a racial angle, suggesting the police officer might have traumatized the children:
“And I think something that’s not lost on me is that they are four-year-old little black kids. And so their first, probably, interaction with men in blue suits and jackets and with guns on their hips coming in, talking to them and interviewing them is based on a lie that they will find out about as they get older.”
MS NOW’s The Weekend’s Emotional Overreach on Buttigieg CPS Incident pic.twitter.com/Ky6aRQUobS
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) June 27, 2026
In fact, as Buttigieg noted:
"The kids bounded into the house, looking curiously at the two guests. They were courteous and professional, inviting the kids to inspect the officer’s police car, which fascinated them of course, while the grownups talked in the driveway."
Moreover, as the children of a former presidential candidate and cabinet secretary, it’s unlikely this was their first exposure to law enforcement officers.
Swatting-style hoaxes and false reports have plagued public figures across the spectrum, with conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nikki Haley, and numerous Republican lawmakers and conservative media members targeted in recent years. That hasn’t drawn much outrage on MS NOW before.
But this is one of theirs. Daniels added that attacks on the “queer community and public out people are coming fast and furious.”
Alemany attacking "the homophobia of it all" and described the separation as “really absolutely terrifying” and discussed the risks of publicizing children on social media.
Capehart closed by noting the timing near Chasten Buttigieg’s birthday: “So can you imagine just the terror that that family went through, and also on a day when they should be celebrating.”
No one disputes the human toll on the Buttigieg family. Weaponizing CPS against anyone’s children is contemptible, full stop.
Yet the segment rushed to frame the hoax as part of a broader right-wing assault during Pride Month, while Buttigieg himself stated plainly: “I don’t know who did this, or exactly what prompted them to try.”
The Weekend’s emotional outpouring and assumptions about the perpetrator’s politics, paired with limited acknowledgment of the broader context, constituted classic selective framing. The family’s ordeal deserves condemnation regardless of who made the call — not partisan point-scoring before the facts are fully known.
Here’s the transcript.
MS NOW
The Weekend
6/27/26
7:29 am EDT
EUGENE DANIELS: Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he and his family were targeted in a "cruel, politically-motivated hoax." This was after an anonymous caller made what police characterize as a false report to Child Protective Services.
According to Buttigieg, the caller said he spoke to a woman who claimed she met him several years ago at a conference in Alabama, where she alleged Buttigieg told her he committed unspeakable violent crimes, and the caller believed his children were still at risk.
Due to this claim, he wasn’t allowed to be alone with his children until the interviews were conducted, which he calls the darkest hours of his life.
The CPS worker assigned to the case and the police officer who interviewed him and his children separately didn’t find anything to substantiate the allegation.
Buttigieg wrote, he also says, he’s never ever been to the town where the woman claims she met him, and said it’s not lost on him that this happened during Pride Month.
In a piece he wrote for Substack, Buttigieg says, quote, "To be clear, making a false report of this kind is a crime. I don’t know how much we can do about it, but so help me God, if there is any way to press civil or criminal charges over this, we will. Not just for our sakes, but to draw a line that I thought everyone already recognized: do not mess with someone’s kids."
JONATHAN CAPEHART: This story is enraging on so many levels. As Secretary Buttigieg pointed out, this is Pride Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, where, you know, gosh!, 11 years ago yesterday was the Obergefell decision, where marriage equality was made the law of the land. Where couples like us, Eugene, we felt like we had a modicum, we had more security in this country for us and our families.
And now in the moment that we’re in, our families don’t feel very secure in general, given what’s happening in the country writ large, but in individual states, and now you have this happening.
I mean, swatting and things like this are just egregious, but for a prominent, out, gay couple—with four-year-old children!—going through something like this, it is outrageous, and it is something that people really need to take seriously.
I think leaders should step out there and say that as Secretary Pete points out in his piece, in politics, children are supposed to be sacrosanct. You’re supposed to leave them alone. These are four-year-olds, four-year-olds!
DANIELS: And I think something that’s not lost on me is that they are four-year-old little black kids.
CAPEHART: Yeah.
DANIELS: And so their first, probably, interaction with men in blue suits and jackets and with guns on their hips coming in, talking to them and interviewing them is based on a lie that they will find out about as they get older.
And I think what we continue to see in this country is the attacks on queer community and public out people are coming fast and furious in different ways. Like it used to be like one way, like you’d get attacked online and that just, that’d be it. But something like this is really ugly and concerning about what it portends for someone like him who’s gonna continue running for office.
CAPEHART: And Jackie, you’re the only one here who has a child. I mean, when you read it, what Secretary Pete wrote, how did you feel?
JACKIE ALEMANY: I can’t imagine being separated from the most important thing in your life for 24 hours. It’s really absolutely terrifying.
I think outside of the homophobia of this all and the attacks that gay people in this country, queer people in this country, now have to deal with every single day. There’s also, I think, another conversation that my husband and I have had a lot, talked a lot about, about publicizing your children on social media too. And this is why people don’t wanna get into public life anymore as well.
Putting yourself out there, you’re an example for so many people, you’re an inspiration for so many people. At the same time you are a target as well, and it’s terrifying, and I think it scares good people from doing these kinds of jobs and being vulnerable with each other, and it’s really a shame.
CAPEHART: You know, one other point, as I was reading Secretary Pete’s Substack, the thing that jumped into my head, you know what else was this week? And I don’t know the timing of all this, it was Chasten’s birthday, Secretary Pete’s husband. So can you imagine just the terror that that family went through, and also on a day when they should be celebrating. So, you know, depending on the timing of all this. I just — uh!
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2026/06/28/buttigieg-swatting-incident-ms-nows-weekend-overcome-emotion
