Protest at the Steak House.

[George K]

Mayor Secretary Pete Secretary Pete's husband: You should expect this stuff.

Two days after Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh fled abortion rights protesters at a Morton’s steakhouse in D.C., Chasten Buttigieg — husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — tweeted his assessment of the incident.

“Sounds like he just wanted some privacy to make his own dining decisions,” Chasten Buttigieg wrote, alluding to Kavanaugh’s recent vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision that had guaranteed abortion access on the basis of Americans’ right to privacy.

The tweet drew criticism from some conservatives, including former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who decried what he called an endorsement of “the use of mob intimidation tactics” as “wildly irresponsible.” But Pete Buttigieg defended his husband’s remarks during a Sunday interview with Fox News’s Mike Emanuel.

“Any public figure should always, always be free from violence, intimidation and harassment but should never be free from criticism or people exercising their First Amendment rights,” Buttigieg said in a “Fox News Sunday” appearance.

He added that officials “should expect” public protests — especially after “an important right that the majority of Americans support was taken away.”

“As long as I’ve been alive, settled case law in the United States has been that the Constitution protected the right to privacy,” Buttigieg said. “And that has now been thrown out the window by justices, including Justice Kavanaugh, who as I recall swore up and down in front of God and everyone, including the United States Congress, that they were going to leave settled case law alone.”

After a draft of the opinion to overturn Roe leaked in May, some abortion rights supporters began protesting outside of conservative justices’ homes. With frustration mounting over abortion restrictions at the state level, advocacy groups like ShutDownDC have called for more public displays of dissatisfaction — offering service industry workers up to $250 for sightings of the justices who voted to overturn Roe.

This is just amazing....

First of all, who cares what the husband of a cabinet secretary says? Can anyone here name the spouse of any other cabinet secretary? C'mon, raise your hand!

Didn't think so.

What the actual hell does "make his own dining decisions" mean? Does it mean that he had to decide lamb, veal or beef? C'mon WaPo. We want to know, because you know where democracy dies, and it ain't in bernaise sauce.

Oh, "should expect." Tell me that's not an incitement to intimidate.

"Should be free of ... intimidation." Yeah, particularly when you're eating dinner at Mortons.

You're an asshole, Mr. Spouse of the Former Mayor of South Bend.

[jon-nyc]

@Jolly said in Protest at the Steak House.:

@jon-nyc said in Protest at the Steak House.:

He might do it, remember he has financial issues

In Washington?

What's the matter with him, is he honest?

Unclear. 200k in credit card debt and 92k in country club dues managed to get paid off in 2017 …. somehow.

[Catseye3]

@jon-nyc

Oy. How do you know this, Jon? Is there a source for public disclosure for candidates? Is $200K one of those numbers that looks worse than it is for a man in his income class, what with mortgages and so on?

Did we have this information during his confirmation hearing?

[jon-nyc]

Yes it was on disclosure forms when he was a circuit court judge. To be fair, 200k was the upper bound, the lower bound of the debt was 90k. So somewhere between the two.

[Horace]

I heard he made a profitable bet on cattle futures.

[Jolly]

That's a substantial steak in a new venture.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in Protest at the Steak House.:

I heard he made a profitable bet on cattle futures.

Sounds like a load of bull to me.

[Mik]

@jon-nyc said in Protest at the Steak House.:

@Jolly said in Protest at the Steak House.:

@jon-nyc said in Protest at the Steak House.:

He might do it, remember he has financial issues

In Washington?

What's the matter with him, is he honest?

Unclear. 200k in credit card debt and 92k in country club dues managed to get paid off in 2017 …. somehow.

In 2017 his salary as a circuit court judge was $217,600. The credit cards mentioned could have been as low as $52K in total according to his disclosure forms.

His wife was town manager of Chevy Chase, bringing in a low 6 figure salary. She's a financial manager.

Both of them are of an age where inheritances would not be unusual. If the FBI didn't find anything, Mother Jones is unlikely to.

[Jolly]

Wasn't he also moonlighting as a prof at that time?

[LuFins Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-piled-up-credit-card-debt-by-purchasing-nationals-tickets-white-house-says/2018/07/11/8e3ad7d6-8460-11e8-9e80-403a221946a7_story.html

[jon-nyc]

Yep, spokesman said he spent scores of thousands on Nats tickets, carried the debt at credit card interest rates, and then one year his friends all paid him back!

That’s pretty normal, right? That’s how my buddies and I do these things.

[Horace]

Typical rabid pro lifer.

[jon-nyc]

Interesting that Kavanaugh plead the fifth never commented. Only the Trump Whitehouse did.

[Jolly]

And...Why is this important?

[jon-nyc]

You brought up his ‘honesty’, you tell us.

[Jolly]

It was a response to a comment.

Gee, who made that comment?

[jon-nyc]

You thought his “honesty” was relevant when it could be assumed, but when the evidence is a bit ambiguous suddenly your attitude is “why does this matter?”

That’s on you, man.

[Jolly]

Nope.

I figure that somebody paid his debt off, as they aligned him for bigger things. It's Washington, it's politics and it's money. That kind of stuff is ubiquitous.

Now, is it dishonest or unethical?

[George K]

Same person?

https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10132/Caramello

[LuFins Dad]