“Mayor Pete” Buttigieg, the former Biden Administration Secretary of the Department of Transportation, was torched online by a top Trump Administration official, Sean Duffy, his DOT replacement, after going on the attack against Trump with a cheap shot about plane crashes in the first month of the Trump presidency.
As background, the Trump Administration has, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s campaign to trim waste from the government, fired hundreds of probationary workers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). That, the left has tried to allege, has led to the high-profile crashes that have occurred in the past month.
Namely, of course, there was the crash of an airliner and VH-60 Army VIP transport aircraft in the skies over DC, leading to over 5 dozen deaths. There was also the crash in Philadelphia, and the recent crash in Canada. Buttigieg, responding to the incidents, said, “The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?”
Duffy destroyed him in a quote tweet, exposing Mayor Pete’s potential culbability for the crashes and saying, “Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system. In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world.”
Continuing, Duffy noted the actual scope of the layoffs at the FAA and its massive size as an agency, saying, “Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.”
He then said, slamming Mayor Pete’s horrid handling of the agency, “Mayor Pete chose to use this amazing department—that is so critical to America’s success—as a slush fund for the green new scam and environmental justice nonsense. Not to mention that over 90% of the workforce under his leadership were working from home – including him. The building was empty!”
Concluding, Duffy obliterated Pete’s “mismanagement” and said, “When we finally get a full accounting of his mismanagement, I look forward to hearing from him. In the meantime, I will not rest until I return the Department of Transportation and its incredible employees to its mission of efficiency and safety.”
"*" indicates required fields
Agreeing with Duffy’s take, a commenter on his post said, “There is absolutely no way possible for the firing of workers in the last few days to have any effect on recent crashes, considering all but one was before. The most recent crash was in Canada not the US. Also, none of the layoffs were for jobs related to safety or air traffic controllers.”
Similarly, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr slammed Mayor Pete’s focus on supposed racism embedded in our infrastructure in a comment on Duffy’s post. He said, “Mayor Pete spent more time calling bridges racist than fixing problems. If we need someone to yell at infrastructure for not being woke enough, we know who to call. ✌️”