Politics

Hate influencer Chaya Raichik says it’s Pete Buttigieg who’s unqualified for his job

She is on an education board even though she has no qualifications other than calling LGBTQ+ people "groomers." She lashed out anyway.
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Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg talks with reporters during a tour of the Port of Monroe Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. Behind Buttigieg is Monroe Mayor Robert Clark.
Pete Buttigieg speaks alongside Michigan Mayor Robert Clark Photo: David Panian/The Monroe News / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN

Hate influencer Chaya Raichik – who goes by “Libs of TikTok” online – has been feuding for the past several days with author Chasten Buttigieg, and now she’s going after his husband, out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, saying that he was just a “diversity hire” because he’s gay.

This past week, Chasten Buttigieg discussed Raichik’s appointment to the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee even though she “doesn’t live in the state of Oklahoma and doesn’t even hold a degree in library science or education.”

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“Placing individuals who have openly attacked LGBTQ+ rights in positions that influence educational policy sends a dangerous message,” he said. “It undermines the very foundation of what education should be—a place of safety, growth, and inclusivity.”

She responded by saying that she is working to stop kids from being “transed in school,” which is something that doesn’t happen. Chasten Buttigieg then said that, as a parent, he wants “qualified people involved in education,” noting that Raichik has never even worked as a teacher and now she’s in a position to ban books for an entire state.

So Raichik, who doesn’t have any qualifications in transportation policy either, attacked Chasten Buttigieg’s husband’s job performance.

“Speaking of qualifications for a government position, your husband Pete Buttigieg only got the job of Transportation Secretary because he’s gay,” she wrote, not citing any proof. “Pete is a diversity hire and has no qualifications to be Transportation Secretary. We all know this.”

Pete Buttigieg is the first and only out LGBTQ+ Cabinet secretary, which makes Raichik’s claim that gay people have historically had easy access to such positions seem unlikely.

Also, Cabinet secretaries are often political appointments of people who are supportive of the president’s policy goals and handle organizational and media responsibilities well, not necessarily career workers in the department they head. Buttigieg’s predecessor, former Transportation Secretary and Donald Trump-appointee Elaine Chao, worked as a banker, a board member of several nonprofit organizations, and as Labor secretary prior to her appointment as Transportation Secretary.

Many people on X mocked Raichik’s implied assertion that she is more qualified for her job than Pete Buttigieg is.

Since Raichik has built up a far-right following over the past few years by claiming that pretty much any LGBTQ+ person who exists in the vicinity of children is a “groomer,” many of those people came to her defense with homophobic insults.

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Chasten Buttigieg Chaya Raichik Elaine Chao Libs of TikTok Oklahoma Pete Buttigieg

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