The Democrat called Trump and his transportation chief “stupid and stupid.”
While US airports were at a standstill, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched
Duffy blamed Friday’s nationwide shutdown on the “overload” of old technology and pushed back against claims that a botched AI upgrade was among the factors, but Newsom doesn’t buy it.
“Governor Gavin Newsom is honored to present Sean Duffy with the inaugural Super Intelligence (SI) Award for modernizing America’s aviation network,” his press office posted, referring to Trump’s attempt to rebrand AI as SI.
Newsom ridiculed Trump and Duffy for their response to the US flight chaos.
“Under Sean’s visionary leadership, the FAA has eliminated late arrivals by eliminating departures,” said Newsom’s press briefing after the abrupt delay or cancellation of 15,000 flights disrupted millions of travelers across the country.
Newsom later posted a meme depicting Duffy and Trump as the bumbling main characters from the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber. He also criticized the president for failing to inform Americans about what was happening, with Trump instead posting on social media about a proposed federal tax credit for film and television during the national blackout.
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“The president, who indulges in disorderly posts at all hours of the day and night about the most petty, hateful, and insignificant nonsense, has somehow found nothing to say about a frightening nationwide airline stopover that stranded Americans for hours,” he posted.
Sean Duffy, at a press conference, sought to defend himself from criticism after thousands of flights were grounded.
“Not a single word of comfort, nor a word of concern,” he added. “Nothing. You’d think he could spare 30 seconds between grievances to reassure the American people.”
At Friday’s news conference, Duffy sought to fend off criticism of the airline chaos caused by the longest layover since the Sept. 11 attacks. He clashed with reporters, claimed outdated systems were causing the problems, then demanded $50 billion from Congress to fix air traffic control systems.
Trump finally surfaced Friday evening to blame the incident on “old, broken stuff” in an interview with Fox News.
Republicans and Democrats mocked Duffy, pointing out that the Republican Party controlled Congress during the two years Duffy claimed urgent action was needed to fix air traffic systems.
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