'Didn't have to be this way': CNN host slams Trump's 'unacceptable' air traffic slowdown

One CNN host lamented that the airline companies are being treated as "pawns" in President Donald Trump's game of politics.

At the top of her Thursday show, Erin Burnett noted how essential air traffic controllers are to keeping the country safe while coordinating planes going hundreds of miles an hour. They, along with TSA agents, aren't being paid during the government shutdown. In past shutdowns, there were agreements that some workers were paid or compensated afterward.

During a call with major airlines on Wednesday, Trump told them they had to cut 10% of their flight traffic by Friday. American Airlines issued a statement saying that this means 220 of its flights tomorrow will be cut.

The FAA said on its website that it handles, on average, 44,000 to 45,000 planes in the U.S. skies on a given day. However, that includes private planes and delivery planes like UPS, FedEx, and USPS delivering products. Those will not be restricted, only those used by everyday Americans traveling in the coming weeks.

Burnett noted that having ATC staff working extra jobs in off-hours to make ends meet means they're more exhausted during a time that they're most needed.

"It is unacceptable that it has come to this, and it's both wrong and not safe for an air traffic controller to be working as an Uber driver off shift to make ends meet. That's something we all can agree on," she said.

Trump was asked about the matter during an Oval Office discussion, and he said the reason he's cutting flights is that it isn't safe.

"The whole situation makes people feel unsafe," Burnett commented. "That's the reality. And the other reality is that it didn't have to be this way because this shutdown, like all of them, is a manufactured crisis in a country that knows nothing better than how to spend money with reckless abandon regardless of political persuasion."

But up until today, when he addressed safety, Trump has stayed with playing politics when he talks about what is now formally the most extended shutdown in American history," she continued. That, however, changed after Republicans lost the election. Polls show that Americans blame the GOP, which is in power in the House, Senate, and White House. Meanwhile, Trump is jet-setting all over the world, meeting with foreign leaders and golfing.

"So while Trump is doing all of this with foreign leaders, you know, obviously, perception can be reality," she said. "It doesn't look like he's doing anything to reopen the government. And that is leaving, now, American travelers high and dry and feeling a bit scared and unsafe when they fly."

Dan McCabe, the southern regional VP of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told Burnett, "They're upset. They feel like pawns. They feel like they're in the middle of a fight that's not theirs. It's partisan politics. And we're stuck in the middle of it."