President Donald Trump’s newly minted Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is facing scrutiny and skepticism in the wake of a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter colliding with an American Airlines commercial flight on approach to land near Washington, D.C. Wednesday night.
Duffy is a former reality TV star, congressman from Wisconsin, and Fox News personality. The New York Times described his transportation-related experience as “limited,” noting he got funding for an aging bridge in Wisconsin and Minnesota while in Congress and briefly worked as a lobbyist for domestic airlines working to better compete with their counterparts in the Middle East.
Now, critics are jumping at Duffy’s handling of his first catastrophe in his new role—especially his comments during a press conference about the crash.
“Obviously, it is not standard to have aircraft collide,” Duffy told reporters Thursday, after being asked about the helicopter’s flight path.
“Oh, thanks for making that clear, genius,” one critic responded.
“Brilliant comment from this reality tv star,” snarked someone else.
“Almost spit out my coffee. All that training on MTV TRW is really going to benefit the American people,” echoed another commenter.
Another prominent left-wing account posted a video from the presser, deriding the fact that Duffy said he had not yet spoken with the air traffic controllers working at the time of the crash.
“What exactly is he doing then?” the account blasted.
“Sean Duffy at the press conference,” another person captioned a GIF of “Beach Ken” from Barbie.
“Someone should notify sean duffy that he is not on MTV or fox news anymore…this is serious and he cannot show up unprepared and expect to get a pass,” concluded one critic.
Duffy, for his part, said he spoke with Washington D.C.’s mayor, the governors of Virginia and Kansas, where the flight originated, as well as the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“I have directed @USDOT and @FAANews to provide full support to the @NTSB and all responding agencies and authorities,” he announced late Wednesday.
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