By JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 21:14 EDT, 11 March 2024 | UPDATED: 02:28 EDT, 12 March 2024
The husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is engaged in an online battle with the founder of the Libs of Tik Tok account after she was appointed to a school library panel in the state of Oklahoma, a political position.
Chasten Buttigieg criticized Libs founder Chaya Raichik for lacking the qualifications necessary for her to sit on the state’s library advisory committee.
Riachik was appointed by Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public institutions, to oversee public school library content despite her having no qualifications in education or library science.
Buttigieg, 34, suggested Raichik, 29, who runs the far-right and anti-LGBT social-media account, was not qualified to hold such a position, quite apart from the fact she does not even live in the state of Oklahoma, but rather Los Angeles, 1,500 miles away.
Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is engaged in an online dispute with Chaya Raichik, founder of Libs of TikTok
Raichik was appointed to an Oklahoma school library panel to which Buttigieg criticized her for lacking education qualifications and living in California
Buttigieg emphasized the danger of appointing individuals with anti-LGBTQ+ views to educational policy position
Raichik was quick to retaliate and shared a video showing him getting kids to pledge allegiance to LGBTQ pride flag
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Buttigieg made a point of highlighting how she lives in California, has no degrees in library science, education or has any classroom experience.
‘As a parent and former teacher, I want qualified people involved in education. This is actually quite simple. Chaya isn’t qualified for her appointed government position. She doesn’t live in Oklahoma. Holds no degree in education. Zero classroom experience. The rest is theatrics,’ he wrote.
‘Placing individuals who have openly attacked LGBTQ+ rights in positions that influence educational policy sends a dangerous message. It undermines the very foundation of what education should be—a place of safety, growth, and inclusivity.’
It didn’t take long before Raichik blasted him in a tweet and shared a video showing him getting kids to pledge allegiance to LGBTQ pride flag.
‘The husband of a current Cabinet member publicly blasted a citizen journalist because I post tiktoks he doesn’t like and don’t want kids being tanned in school. Does anyone else find this alarming?’ she asked.
The video clip, which is from an Amazon Prime documentary, Mayor Pete
The video shows him getting kids to pledge allegiance to LGBTQ pride flag
The documentary see Buttigieg in a classroom full of teenagers at Iowa’s Safe Schools Pride Camp in 2019
The video clip, which is from an Amazon Prime documentary, Mayor Pete, and sees Buttigieg in a classroom full of teenagers at Iowa’s Safe Schools Pride Camp in 2019.
He encourages them to recite his ‘pledge’ to the iconic flag: ‘I pledge my heart to the rainbow, the not so typical gay camp. One camp, full of pride, indivisible with affirmation and equal rights for all.’
Raichik kept going as she suggested Chasten’s husband, Pete Buttigieg was simply hired because he is gay and was purely a ‘diversity hire’ for the Biden Administration.
‘Speaking of qualifications for a government position, your husband Pete Buttigieg only got the job of Transportation Secretary because he’s gay. Pete is a diversity hire and has no qualifications to be Transportation Secretary. We all know this,’ Raichik suggested.
The back-and-forth between Raichik and Buttigieg has cast questions as to her suitability for the role to which the state of Oklahoma appointed her.
Brandon Wold, the National Press Secretary at Human Right Campaign described her as nothing more than an ‘internet troll’.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, left, is seen with his husband Chasten Buttigieg in October 2023
Brandon Wold, the National Press Secretary at Human Right Campaign described her as nothing more than an ‘internet troll’
‘All Chaya Raichik knows is hurling bigoted smears that spit in the face of survivors of actual abuse and peddling anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria bait for clicks. She leaves nothing but venomous lies, hate, and harassment in her wake,’ Wolf wrote on X.
‘Aren’t you a political appointee, a job for which you are totally unfit? I find that alarming,’ he added.
In the past, Raichik has claimed her account simply spreads awareness of far-left ideologies being implemented in classrooms and online.
In 2022, her account was given a major boost by podcast host Joe Rogan, who called it ‘one of the greatest f**king accounts of all time,’ just months into its existence as a liberal clearinghouse.
Raichik’s account started as TikTok and became popular during the pandemic as she stumbled across far-left content.
Now, she wants to help ‘educate people’ and create legislation to fight against the things she reposts on her account.