John Kennedy Asks Pete Buttigieg: ‘How Are Your Babies?’

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a Senate hearing on Thursday how his babies were.

Buttigieg adopted two babies after marrying a man who took his name. Pete Buttigieg and Chasten Buttigieg were wed in 2018. Three years later, the two men welcomed a son and a daughter into their union.

“Mr. Secretary, How are your babies?” Kennedy asked with a smile during a Senate subcommittee hearing.

“Thanks for asking. They’re doing all right,” Buttigieg responded.

“As we were talking about earlier, my father used to tell me, ‘You’ll never know love until you have a child,'” Kennedy replied.

The secretary responded, “It’s a different kind of love.”

“It’s a different kind of love,” Kennedy echoed:

Upon becoming parents, Pete Buttigieg announced the personal development on social media with a family photo of the four. The image shows the couple sitting on a hospital bed, smiling, as they each hold a newborn.

“Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents. We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family,” he said.

Buttigieg then took paternity leave during the infrastructure supply crises.

“Every American ought to be able to get paid parental leave. That’s something that the president believes in and has proposed. It’s something I believe,” he said.

Senator Kennedy is married to his wife Becky, with whom he has a son, James Preston Kennedy. The Kennedys are from Madisonville, Louisiana, where they are founding members of their local Methodist church.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.