Transportation secretary Sean Duffy is dealing with a major crisis a day after he was sworn in, but the early reviews of his job performance have been brutal.
The former Wisconsin congressman, Fox Business host and MTV reality show star officially took over Tuesday as head of the Transportation Department, putting him out front for Donald Trump's administration after an American Airlines flight collided Wednesday night with a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.
"Obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide," Duffy told reporters Thursday morning. "I want to be clear on that."
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The Cabinet official's response did not inspire much confidence, especially after the newly inaugurated president reportedly chased off many of the officials and federal employees who would otherwise be responsible for aviation safety and investigating the crash.
"No f------ s---," said progressive influencer Alex Cole, responding to Duffy's remark.
"I'm worried Sean Duffy is not up the challenge," said soccer analyst Michael Caley.
"Don't worry about your aviation safety America, because the head of the Transportation Department is no longer 'woke,' but is in fact the guy from MTV's 'The Real World,'" posted blogger Oliver Willis.
“'Oh, we shouldn’t ask the new Secretary of Transportation any hard questions about this disaster; that would be unfair, somehow; anyway back to our regularly scheduled programming about DEI,'" added Duke sociologist Kieran Healy.
"Duffy’s comment that the accident was 'preventable' echoes an earlier statement from Trump, which appeared to put the spotlight on the helicopter," said Benedikt Kammel, global aviation editorial leader for Bloomberg News. "It’s unusual for officials to come out this early with theories, but Trump isn’t known to take his time in publicly airing his views."
"Duffy is again commenting on the circumstances of the crash by characterizing the flight paths of both aircraft as normal, and 'not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace,'" agreed his Bloomberg colleague Ryan Beene, the global business editor. "It’s worth emphasizing that it’s highly irregular for anyone other than NTSB personnel, even senior government officials, to share details about an airplane crash, much less characterize what occurred during a crash. Those details typically fall under the NTSB’s purview."
"Staffing the government with a bunch of people who are used to opining on TV means you get a bunch of government officials who think they are supposed to opine on TV," said Washington Post columnist Philip Bump.
"Someone needs to go around and ask all the dems who voted to confirm Duffy if they're happy with their vote right now and if they'd do it again if it was today," added author Shiv Ramdas.
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