Translation
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said point-blank that all of the problems he faces today are the fault of his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg.
“It seems like a whole lot of problems surfaced as soon as you took office,” Fox Business host Stuart Varney told Duffy. “Do you blame your predecessor Buttigieg for this?”
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Duffy replied, “I do.”
“Because, again, when leaders see problems, they can’t ignore the problem and pass it off to the next guy. What you should do is actually fix the problem,” he added. “We’re doing what they wouldn’t do.”
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He blamed Buttigieg for the problems facing Newark airport due to outdated equipment and a shortage of air traffic controllers.
VARNEY: It seems like a whole lot of problems surfaced as soon as you took office. Do you blame your predecessor Buttigieg for this?
DUFFY: I do, because when leaders see problems, they can't ignore the problem and pass it off to the next guy. What you should do is actually fix… pic.twitter.com/8fcag2OHDG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2025
But in April 2024, Buttigieg asked Congress for more funding to hire air traffic controllers. Republicans controlled the House and did not authorize that funding increase.
Buttigieg also said on MSNBC in May that he tried to get the funding to update equipment.
“It’s obviously a real concern, a major concern,” he told host Jen Psaki. “When you become Secretary of Transportation, you know that your most important priority is safety. I understood that, my predecessors understood that, and my successor says that he understands that.”
Duffy has blamed Buttigieg for his problems before.
“Celebrating Transit Equity Day. Chairing the Equity Council. Stopping racist roads. Building bike paths. Funding studies on gender non-conforming people,” Duffy wrote on X in May. “This is the c**p Pete Buttigieg focused on instead of fixing the problems with Newark and our entire air traffic control system.”
“Buttigieg and Biden didn’t lift a finger to fix our air traffic control system,” he claimed.
Nevertheless, Duffy has been spending his time begging governors to remove rainbow crosswalks and banning diversity celebrations while overseeing actions that potentially make air travel more dangerous.
In February, Buttigieg (and many others) also slammed the administration for firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees in the middle of a spate of plane crashes.
“Even after a bunch of accidents that highlighted FAA staffing shortages, they still went ahead and fired FAA staff,” said Professor of Public Policy Don Moynihan. “They don’t know what they are doing.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) added that the move was “stupid beyond belief.”
And despite criticizing Buttigieg for focusing on equity-related issues, one of the administration’s first moves upon taking office was to re-implement gendered language at the Federal Aviation Administration.
In February, Buttigieg shared a screenshot of a post by CNN reporter Pete Muntean that showed a memo from the FAA saying that the term “NOTAM” would now refer to “Notice to Airmen” instead of “Notice to Air Missions.” Muntean noted that the meaning of the term NOTAM was changed to “Missions” in 2021 under President Joe Biden.
The memo was released in the immediate aftermath of the first major commercial air crash in 16 years, which killed dozens of people.
“So after promising to focus on safety, they’ve gotten right down to work… on gender terminology?” Buttigieg wrote in a post on Bluesky.
This month, Duffy – who once repeatedly harassed a lesbian on reality TV – also embarrassed himself with a bizarre interaction at a congressional hearing where he said he didn’t even know how many air traffic controllers have left the workforce this year.
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Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/07/pet ... tes-fault/