‘How Did This Happen?’: Tucker Carlson Rips Buttigieg Over Largest Grounding Of US Flights ‘Since 9/11’
Harold Hutchison on January 11, 2023
Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the largest grounding of flights since Sept. 11, 2001 due to a technology glitch.
A computer glitch led to the FAA ordering a nationwide ground stop Wednesday that forced the cancellation of over 10,000 flights before a system that warned pilots of hazards in their flight path was repaired.
“It reached a point you might experience a trip across Bangladesh. Just today, in fact, the FAA was forced to order a ground stop for all air traffic in the United States, no planes flying in a continental country. First time that’s happened since 9/11,” Carlson said. “Now, the problem affected the newly renamed notice to air missions system. More than 10,000 flights cancelled or delayed. How did this happen? Total stop on all air travel.”
“Okay! So, I’m the secretary of transportation and there’s no air transportation in the entire country of 350 million people,” Carlson added. “I have no idea why, but I am going to quote ‘direct someone to find out’ because we can’t allow this to happen. Really? Thanks for telling us, we thought we could allow this to happen, we can’t? You’re going to direct someone to find out? Yeah, sure.”
WATCH:
Carlson criticized Buttigieg for focusing on “racist roads” and rather than addressing issues with the transportation system, including massive flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines during a winter storm. An Amtrak Auto Train from Virginia to Orlando was stranded for almost 30 hours due to a freight train derailment in North Carolina Tuesday.
‘There is racism physically built into our highways,’ Mayor Pete announced, and in his voice you heard the iron resolve of a man with no tolerance for bigotry in asphalt,” Carlson said. “And yet, at the same time, you also heard a deeply sensitive man, a man that can feel the hate beneath the wheels of his electric vehicle when others might just hear road noise.”
“In April of last year, Mayor Pete noted ensuring equity and every member of the traveling public is one of the department’s highest priorities. So, he was on it and equity crisis was solved,” Carlson said. “Unfortunately, our transportation problems were not solved, they had in the meantime, they had become much worse.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden still had confidence in Buttigieg during a Wednesday press briefing at the White House.
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