Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is dealing with calls for and stress from influential leaders throughout the political spectrum as tens of 1000’s of Individuals stay stranded at airports throughout the nation.
Southwest Airways canceled greater than 2,500 flights Wednesday, 62% of its scheduled flights, and plans to cancel an estimated two-thirds of flights within the following days. Democrat and GOP elected officers and political activists demanded the Division of Transportation maintain the corporate accountable in order that clients obtain full refunds and lodging.Â
“Southwest’s flight delays & cancellations are past unacceptable,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tweeted Wednesday. “This can be a firm that bought a $7 billion taxpayer bailout & shall be handing out $428 million in dividends to their rich shareholders.”
The Division of Transportation “should maintain Southwest’s CEO accountable for his greed and incompetence,” Sanders added.
GOP LAWMAKER BLASTS BIDEN, BUTTIGIEG AFTER KIDS STRANDED IN BALTIMORE AMID AIRLINE CHAOS
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned on “The Late Late Present With James Corden” in September that airline journey “goes to get higher by the vacations.”
(AP Photograph/Susan Walsh)
Buttigieg in September mentioned on “The Late Late Present With James Corden” that airline journey “goes to get higher by the vacations.” Nina Turner, the nationwide co-chair of Sanders’ 2020 presidential marketing campaign, blamed the issue on Buttigieg’s outsized ambitions for larger workplace.
“What’s taking place with the railroads, airways & the availability chain is a results of a small metropolis mayor being made the Secretary of Transportation as a method to pad his resume for President,” she tweeted Tuesday. “Secretary Buttigieg is a main instance of failing up.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, launched a press release Tuesday that declared federal guidelines should be up to date to stop related disasters sooner or later.Â
“The Committee shall be wanting into the causes of those disruptions and its influence to customers,” Cantwell mentioned. “Many airways fail to adequately talk with customers throughout flight cancellations. Shoppers deserve robust protections, together with an up to date shopper refund rule.”
SEAN DUFFY ON TRANSPORTATION CHAOS: ‘MAYOR PETE’ WAS IGNORING THE PROBLEM
Pete Buttigieg, proper, and his husband, Chasten
(Paul Morigi/Getty Pictures)
For greater than a yr, Republican leaders have complained Buttigieg doesn’t take his job significantly amid a sequence of crises for Individuals. Buttigieg was on trip in Europe as railroad unions tried to barter a deal in September to keep away from a doubtlessly disastrous strike. The secretary was on paternity go away together with his husband and their two newborns for a number of months final yr because the nation confronted provide chain shortages.Â
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., mentioned she almost was unable to see her kids on Christmas due to flight delays — and criticized the Division of Transportation for its sluggish response.
“It took 4 days and 1000’s and 1000’s of cancelations for DOT to lastly converse up; similar factor, it took 4 days for the CEO of Southwest to lastly converse up,” Mace mentioned Wednesday on “Fox & Pals.” “I hope sooner or later the federal government, once we are intervening and a few of these points, that we’re extra environment friendly and simpler.”
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., famous a Fox Information Digital Report that Buttigieg has taken at the least 18 flights utilizing taxpayer-funded personal jets since taking workplace.Â
“If @USDOT is severe about addressing Southwest’s current implosion, it ought to prohibit its chief @SecretaryPete from flying personal,” Biggs tweeted Wednesday. “Why wasn’t he conscious of those challenges beforehand? Late to the sport and out of contact.”
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY: PETE BUTTIGIEG SEES AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEFLECT FROM HIS OWN INCOMPETENCE
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg takes a tour of the Seagirt Marine Terminal on the Port of Baltimore on July 29, 2021.
(Al Drago/Bloomberg)
Buttigieg had a fast trade over Twitter with the Home Judiciary GOP, which tweeted Tuesday, “The place’s @SecretaryPete? #SouthwestAirlines.”
“Good morning! In the mean time I’m on Capitol Hill, not far out of your places of work,” the secretary tweeted in response. “We’ll maintain getting outcomes for passengers utilizing our authorities & assets as an company. For those who’re calling for insurance policies that might deepen these assets, please be particular – I’d welcome the dialogue.”
Buttigieg was warned by members of his personal get together about considerations throughout the airline trade earlier than Southwest’s mass cancellations. Cantwell, together with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., filed a remark in November to the Division of Transportation on the necessity to hurry its course of to finalize a rule to make sure customers are correctly refunded for cancellations and get lodging.
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Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., despatched a joint letter to Buttigieg in July equally calling for guidelines to guard customers from cancellations. Democratic New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James additionally despatched Buttigieg a letter on the problem in August.
