WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was the target of an anonymous report that police determined was false and that he says forced him to spend a night away from his four-year-old twins.
According to Buttigieg, a Michigan State Police officer and a child protective services worker came to his home in Traverse City after they received an anonymous report alleging he posed a danger to his children. Authorities arranged forensic interviews for his twins and instructed him not to be alone with them until the interviews were complete.
Buttigieg described the 24-hour ordeal in a Substack post as "among the darkest hours of my life.”
Michigan State Police said in a statement to The Associated Press they received an “anonymous report” and that they and child protective services “responded and determined the report 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. Buttigieg said he had never been to the town where the meeting allegedly occurred.
He said police told him the allegation would not be referred to prosecutors and that they believed it to be politically motivated, while Child Protective Services found nothing to substantiate the report.
“I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this," writes Buttigieg. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is.”
Buttigieg, who is widely viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, has long been the target of anti-LGBTQ attacks.
In recent years, conservative activists and some Republican officials have opposed efforts to portray same-sex parents as ordinary families in schools and public life. June — widely recognized as Pride Month — is Strong Families Month in Alabama, intended to coincide with Father’s Day. Gov. Kay Ivey’s proclamation says fathers are “the head of the household” and “homes led by a father and mother provide children with the structure and discipline necessary to succeed throughout life.”
Buttigieg wrote that the incident occurred soon after he shared photos of his family online for Father’s Day.
Buttigieg drew criticism from some Republicans for taking paternity leave after he and his husband, Chasten, adopted their twins while he was serving in the Biden administration. Buttigieg also wrote that he has faced death threats during his career.
“But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began,” he wrote.
Public officials from across the political spectrum have increasingly been targeted by swatting, which is the act of making a false call to emergency services to prompt a response at a particular address. The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to show up. Law enforcement agencies have warned that the incidents divert resources from other pressing tasks and pose risks to both law enforcement and the victims.
Buttigieg said the incident reflected a broader escalation in political attacks.
“Everyone knows politics is ugly these days,” he wrote. “It’s always been ugly, but now it feels more and more like bloodsport."
“Even so, this is different.”
FILE - Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at the National Action Network (NAN) Convention in New York on April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Juan Nicolas wants this time to be different.
The Bogotá, Colombia, native saw the scary scene two years ago during the Copa America final as thousands of ticketless fans breached the security gates at Hard Rock Stadium to watch Colombia face Argentina.
Colombia's soccer team will play Portugal on Saturday in a World Cup group stage match, returning to the stadium for the first time since that incident — this time with heightened security and multiple checkpoints.
“Now that we’re here, I feel a little pressure just to show myself better and like to show a better country to the world," said Nicolas, who said he was not at the match in 2024. "Colombia is new now. Colombia has new stuff to give to the world. We’re a different country, so now we have to show that.”
The crowd trouble began hours before the July 2024 match. Supporters — many of them wearing Colombia’s yellow and red colors — rushed the gates at the home stadium of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, leaving fans terrified and bloodied as security struggled to contain the rush.
Screams could be heard in the background of many videos circling social media, and posts showed some fans trying to climb through air vents to gain entry.
Questions were sparked on how to handle two more years of major soccer tournaments in the United States — the Club World Cup last year and this year's World Cup.
There was increased security last summer at the Club World Cup matches held in Miami, which served as a preview of the ticket-screening measures to expect on Saturday.
Fans must pass through three separate checkpoints that enclose the entire campus before getting close to the stadium, and parking passes are checked well before entry. Steel fencing is also set up around the perimeter.
“It’s been a layered approach that people have to go through,” said Andrew Giuliani, executive director of President Donald Trump’s World Cup task force, which is overseeing the tournament's multiagency security effort.
“We’re going to make sure that everybody is on their guard ready to go that day in particular,” Giuliani added, “just making sure that there are no issues. ... We’re leaning in on the 27th to make sure we can talk about the action that happened (on the pitch)."
Giuliani said there will be a “strong federal presence” both around the stadium and city on Saturday, declining to answer if that includes more than a typical match day. There have been three World Cup group matches in Miami so far. Each has seen a heavy police presence.
“I think we like showing up for our team, and some people take it a little bit too far," said Lucas Gaviria, a native of Manizales, Colombia, who attends Florida Atlantic University. “That has to do with our culture. We care about it too much, we have a ‘any means necessary’ type of thinking. ‘I need to see this game, even though I know I don’t have the money for it.’”
Saturday's match has been in high demand, both because of South Florida's large Colombian community and the draw of Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo. Tickets on the resale site StubHub were listed from around $3,000 to more than $5,000.
“If you don’t have tickets, you shouldn’t be on site here,” Giuliani said in January, when he and other members of the task force visited the stadium during the College Football Playoff national championship. “It’s not like an American football game where there’s tailgating. This is very different. We want to make sure the security resources are here for those ticketed fans. If you’re not ticketed, you have fan festivals. You have other events in the Miami area where you can go and enjoy and be safe.”
Hard Rock Stadium — Miami Stadium is its name during the World Cup because of FIFA’s policies about sponsorship — has not commented because of its ongoing involvement in multiple lawsuits related to the Copa America final.
Those lawsuits, which list multiple defendants, claim — among other things — that the stadium and soccer officials didn’t have enough security present to handle such a crowd, lacked proper numbers of Spanish-speaking personnel working at the event and didn’t protect legitimate ticket holders “from foreseeable criminal activity.”
Ahead of Saturday's match, Colombia supporters said they hope that moment doesn't define them.
"There are a lot of great things that Colombia stands for," said Nadia Rodriguez, a Bogota, Colombia, native living in Miami. “Great coffee, beautiful landscapes, amazing songs, the soccer team. The darkness is in the past.”
AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.
Zach Pascuzzi is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here
FILE - A security agent assists a fan who was waiting to enter the stadium prior to the Copa America final soccer match between Argentina and Colombia, in Miami Gardens, Fla., July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Fans wait to enter the stadium prior to the Copa America final soccer match between Argentina and Colombia in Miami Gardens, Fla., July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
