Buttigieg shuts down Fox News host Bret Baier's questions about his diplomatic travel with Chasten: 'Why is it any different when it's me and my husband?'

• Pete Buttigieg called out Fox News host Brett Baier for applying a double standard to his marriage.
• He was asked whether his husband's trip was reimbursed when they traveled to the Invictus Games.
• Other spouses have made the same trip, he said. "Why is it any different when it's me and my husband?"

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Fox News host Bret Baier for applying a double standard to his marriage.

Buttigieg, who is gay, appeared to take umbrage on Thursday when he was asked about taking his husband Chasten "on a military aircraft to attend a sporting event in Netherlands."

"That's quite a spin to put on it," said Buttigieg, who led a presidential delegation in April to the Invictus Games, a sporting competition for wounded veterans.

When Baier asked whether Chasten's trip was reimbursed, Buttigieg responded, "Of course not!" The diplomatic protocol on a presidential delegation, he said, has long been that the principal is accompanied by their spouse. 

"Before me, it was the Secretary of the Army under President Trump who took that trip with his wife," he said "Before that it was Mrs. Trump as First Lady who went to the Invictus Games. Before that Mrs. Obama did the same thing."

He went on, "And I guess the question on my mind is, if no one's raising questions about why Secretary Esper and his wife led that delegation — and as well, they should have — then why is it any different when it's me and my husband?"

Baier replied, "understood," and then moved on to a different topic.

—Acyn (@Acyn) January 6, 2023

Fox News has been reporting on Buttigieg "facing backlash" over the trip from Republicans on Twitter after the right-leaning group Americans for Public Trust obtained an internal calendar and shared it with Fox News Digital.

Buttigieg, a veteran who served as a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan, said leading the presidential delegation was "one of the great honors of my time in this job."