Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he would not apologize to anyone for going on paternity leave.

Anchor Jake Tapper asked, “This is the first time you have been on the show since you and your husband welcomed twins into your family. You just returned from paternity leave, which Congress is debating right now. Some conservatives have been citing your experience in an effort to mock the very idea of paternity leave. Take a listen.”

In a video, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson said, “Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child – paternity leave, they call it – trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went.”

Tapper asked, “What’s your response?”

Buttigieg said, “As you might imagine, we are bottle feeding and doing it at all hours of the day and night. I’m not going to apologize to Tucker Carlson or anyone else for taking care of our premature twins. The work we are doing is joyful, fulfilling, important work — it’s important work, and it’s work that every American ought to be able to do whether they welcome a new child into their family.”

He continued, “I campaigned on that, so did the president, by the way. We are pretty much the only country left that doesn’t have some kind of national policy for paid leave. I think it’s us and Papua New Guinea. It’s past time to make it possible for every American, mother and father, to take care of their children when a new child arrived in the family.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN