About 17 years ago, Child Protective Services (CPS) knocked on my front door: A grim-faced lady notified me that her office received a very disturbing allegation about our parenting. She asked if she could look inside our home.
We had nothing to hide, so I let her in.
So she checked our refrigerator, making sure it was adequately stocked. (It was.) She checked our boys’ bedrooms, making sure they were both clean. (They were.) She asked if we used drugs in front of our kids. (We don’t.)
After searching our home and finding nothing wrong, she told me that my two-and-a-half-year-old son had told his nursery schoolteacher that mommy and daddy have “special needles” that he wasn’t allowed to play with, and she asked me what he meant.
I didn’t have a clue. (None of us had diabetes, used injectable meds, or anything like that.)
When my wife came home, she immediately put two-and-two together: COLORED TOOTHPICKS! Earlier in the week, she made a fondue dip and used colored toothpicks. Because they were bright and colorful, my kid wanted to play with them (which we didn’t allow, of course).
So my preschool kid, using his preschool vocabulary, called colored toothpicks “special needles,” and his dopey, mush-brained teacher took him literally.
Fortunately for us, we never saw CPS again. But it could’ve been a nightmare: Bad case workers 100% exist, and if they’re so inclined, they can make your life a living hell — even if you did nothing wrong. They can traumatize children and destroy families.
CPS abuse is not a trivial thing.
I was thinking about this while reading the mainstream media’s fervor over Pete Buttigieg’s claim that his family was “swatted” by a CPS caseworker:
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.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) June 26, 2026
Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal. https://t.co/72wxaVLzVT
He explained more in his Substack:
You’ve probably heard of “swatting.” It’s a cruel and dangerous kind of hoax that has started happening more frequently in recent years. Someone anonymously calls 911 with a false report of imminent danger, such as a hostage situation, at the home of a public figure.
[…]
Now imagine the same concept, but with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team. Hadn’t thought of that? Me neither, until a few days ago when a police officer and a CPS worker showed up at our home and politely asked to speak with me.
I showed them in, invited them on the deck so that we could hear each other over the barking dog, and asked what was going on. They explained that there had been an allegation against me, that it concerned our four-year-old twins, and that a forensic interview had been arranged for the children the following day. I could not be present at the children’s interview, nor could any family member sit in. Afterwards, they would come back and interview me. And only then would they tell me anything about the nature of the allegation.
So what triggered the investigation?
An anonymous caller had contacted CPS. The caller said that he had spoken to a woman who claimed to have met me at a conference several years ago in Alabama, where she said I told her that I had committed unspeakable violent crimes, and the caller believed my children were still at risk.
If Buttigieg’s reporting is accurate, what he went through was outrageous: An anonymous allegation against a nationally known political figure shouldn’t lead to that kind of chaos. (And even if you’re not a nationally known political figure, for the love of God, discretion, proportionality, and common sense are still vaguely important in law enforcement.)
Most of the media, it seems, agreed:
IndyStar: Pete Buttigieg Lived Every Queer Parent’s Nightmare
Newsweek: Pete Buttigieg Details ‘Darkest Hours’ After False Report on His Children
The Daily Beast: Pete Buttigieg Reveals Sick ‘Political’ Plot to Destroy His Family
The New Republic: Pete Buttigieg Target of Vile Attack on His Young Family
MS NOW: Buttigieg and Family TARGETED in ‘Politically Motivated’ HOAX
The Guardian: Pete Buttigieg Recalls ‘Darkest Hours’ After Separation From Children Over Hoax CPS Report
Advocate: Pete & Chasten Buttigieg’s Children Targeted With Cruel Hoax
Is it possible that Pete Buttigieg is an unreliable narrator — and there’s more to the story than he’s acknowledged?
You betcha: Buttigieg is a politician, and politicians aren’t exactly synonymous with unflinching honesty. For very obvious reasons, getting ahead of the CPS story by portraying himself (and his husband) as victims of a dastardly political smear was clever PR.
But it’s also possible that the CPS office is being run by idiots — and everything Buttigieg said was entirely true.
Either way, the mainstream media’s reaction is fascinating. Over the past few years, a shocking number of conservatives, Republican politicians, Trump cabinet officials, and MAGA personalities have been victimized by politically motivated swatting attacks, and until now, the media’s silence has been deafening.
Here’s just a partial list of right-leaning swatting victims:
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was swatted in Florida.
Sen. Tommy Tubbervulle (R-Ala.) was swatted in Alabama.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was swatted in Virginia.
Trump cabinet officials Susie Wiles, Howard Lutnick, Lee Zeldin, Brooke Rollins, and Pam Bondi were all swatted with phony threats.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) was swatted in New York.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was swatted in Georgia (multiple times).
Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) was swatted in South Carolina (more than once).
Gov. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) was swatted in Indiana.
Attorney General (and Senate candidate) Ken Paxson (R-Tex.) was swatted in Texas.
Conservative legal expert Prof. Jonathan Turley was swatted in Virginia.
Numerous MAGA commentators, social media influencers, and journalists — including Nick Sortor, Shawn Farash, Gunther Eagleman, Joe Pagliarulo, and Chase Geiser — were all swatted.
Swatting isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s something left-wing activists have used to harass conservatives for a long time. But now that it’s being used to harass Democrats, the media has suddenly decided that it’s a major problem.
This glaring double standard didn’t go unnoticed on social media:
Amy Coney Barrett was swatted last month. Neither Pete Buttigieg nor Mark commented on it. The New York Times did not do a story on it.
— Scalito (@Legally_Italian) June 27, 2026
I like Mark, but the truth is the only thing new about this story is that it happened to a Democrat. It’s ho-hum and commonplace for… https://t.co/zCD1t3pni9
Swatting is dangerous. Eventually, it’ll get someone killed. It’s too damn bad that the New York Times didn’t condemn swatting when it was almost entirely a Republican problem — because if it had, Pete Buttigieg’s family might’ve been spared.
As for CPS, its intentions may be noble — Of course, children must be protected! Of course, credible abuse claims must be investigated! — but noble intentions aren’t enough. What matters are the actual results.
One day after CPS visited my home, I stormed into the school’s principal’s office and slammed the container of colored toothpicks on her desk. (I also wore a muscle shirt, so she could see my needle-free arms.) She tried to protest — arguing that it’s school policy to call CPS when kids talk about needles — and besides, isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?
No, it’s not!
“False accusations don’t make anyone safer,” I told her. “You jeopardized my family’s safety and security by jumping to the wrong conclusion.”
“But —"
“Sometimes I play secret agent with my kids! Are you gonna call the CIA if they tell you about it?”
“Well, no, but —”
“Since you’re stupid enough to take a two-and-a-half-year-old literally, we’re pulling our kids out of this program. Obviously, my family is not safe here. Goodbye.”
And that was that.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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