Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy fires back at Hillary Clinton for knocking DOGE: ‘Sit this one out’
He wants her to stay grounded
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got into it with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, telling her to “sit this one out” after she needled him for touting plans to bring in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to upgrade air traffic control systems.
“Big News – Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” Duffy, 53, had said in an X post Wednesday.?
Clinton, 77, quickly dunked on the announcement, saying the DOGE team had “no relevant experience.”
“Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car,” she wrote on X. “And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?”
Duffy then fired back and defended DOGE’s motley crew of bureaucrat busters.
“Madam Secretary, with all due respect, ‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out,” Duffy shot back.
DOGE boss Elon Musk confirmed Wednesday that his team will hustle “to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration’s main warning system for pilots briefly suffered an outage, underscoring its troubles. A backup system was used in the interim before the main system was restored.
The outage took place three days after a passenger jet and a military helicopter collided in the airspace near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people.
Clinton kept the tiff going Thursday, claiming that “US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes.”
“Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs,” she added. “Now there have been two fatal crashes.”
“Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast.”
That attack prompted Duffy to ratchet up his war of words.
“I know you’re lashing out because DOGE is uncovering your family’s obscene grifting via USAID, but I won’t let you lie and distort facts,” Duffy countered. “The FAA administrator announced he resigned over a month before Trump took office, and the air traffic controllers were always exempt from Trump’s civil service buyouts. “
“I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure. Your team had its chance and failed.”
Trump, 78, teased Thursday morning during the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol that his administration will huddle with Congress to pursue a dramatic overhaul of the air traffic control system.
