Fox News host Bill Hemmer challenged Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy after he slashed nearly 400 jobs at the Federal Aviation Administration amid airplane disasters.
During a Monday interview, Duffy said he had instructed his employees to email Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to explain why they should keep their jobs.
"And I think this whole movement, Bill, is potentially gonna make people go, I'm gonna come to work earlier. I'm gonna stay later," Duffy said, "I'm gonna look at what Donald Trump wants me to accomplish because he won the election, and I'm gonna fight and work to make sure I help him accomplish that because I'm a public servant... I actually work for the president."
"I also want to show you the incidents, the aviation disasters," Hemmer pointed out. "So far this year, you look at [commercial airplane crashes on] Jan. 29, Jan. 31, Feb. 6, Feb. 10 and then Feb. 17."
"Some say this is not a time to cut employees, given the safety factors that are concerned," the Fox News host said.
"So, Bill, there's fat everywhere in government and in DOT as well," Duffy replied, noting that 352 jobs were cut out of 46,000 at the FAA. "We hired more inspectors for things like pipelines and for aircraft."
"But for people to say that because we cut 352 people out of 46,000, that's a risk to safety," he added. "Give me a break. I mean, that's just playing politics as opposed to saying, let's cut the fat."
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Duffy confirmed he was taking advice from employees at Musk's SpaceX rocket company on how to run his department.
"Elon Musk team at at at SpaceX have have come in and given their advice," he admitted. "We're bringing in America's best and brightest, whether it's air traffic control or advisors on technology, to make sure that again, we have the greatest air traffic control system, a safest system in the whole world."
