Tag: Buttigieg

  • Duffy blasts Buttigieg: ‘Mayor Pete failed for 4 years’

    Duffy blasts Buttigieg: ‘Mayor Pete failed for 4 years’

    Current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a post on X, accusing the Biden-era official of “mismanagement.”

    He leveled the criticism when responding to a post in which Buttigieg wrote, “The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?” 

    Duffy responded, blasting Buttigieg.

    “Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system. In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world,” Duffy declared.

    SEAN DUFFY TELLS HILLARY CLINTON TO ‘SIT THIS ONE OUT’ AFTER SHE CHIMES IN ON HIS DOGE ANNOUNCEMENT

    Left: Sean Duffy, U.S, Secretary of Transportation, during a swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. Right: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks to reporters after a groundbreaking ceremony for the Long Bridge Project at the Long Bridge Aquatic Center on Oct. 15, 2024 in Arlington, Va. (Left: Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Right: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    Prior to serving in the Biden administration, Buttigieg served as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

    “Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go,” Duffy continued.

    He accused Buttigieg of utilizing the Department of Transportation “as a slush fund for the green new scam and environmental justice nonsense,” and claimed “that over 90% of the workforce under his leadership were working from home – including him. The building was empty!”

    PETE BUTTIGIEG BLASTS TRUMP AFTER PRESIDENT EXCORIATES HIM DURING PRESS BRIEFING

    “When we finally get a full accounting of his mismanagement, I look forward to hearing from him,” he declared.

    Buttigieg fired back, “At least one of the claims here (concerning telework rates) is demonstrably false, so forgive us for seeking more specifics on the rest. Is the Secretary claiming, and will he show, that none of the hundreds of FAA personnel he just fired were important to safety?”

    In a post on Sunday, Duffy had indicated that individuals from SpaceX were slated to visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center on Monday.

    DUFFY BRINGS UP CLINTON WHILE NOTING SPACEX WORKERS WILL VISIT AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM COMMAND CENTER

    Pete Buttigieg

    U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg looks on prior to the Playoff First Round game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium on Dec. 20, 2024 in South Bend, Ind. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images))

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    “The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer,” Elon Musk replied.

  • FCC chair brings receipts on Biden admin’s ‘expertise in incompetence’ in blistering message to Buttigieg

    FCC chair brings receipts on Biden admin’s ‘expertise in incompetence’ in blistering message to Buttigieg

    Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for claiming Trump administration “incompetence” is putting Americans “at risk,” pointing to a multi-billion dollar project under the Biden administration that he said yielded no results. 

    “You worked for an Administration that got $42 billion to connect millions of Americans to the Internet,” Carr said in an X post on Saturday responding to Buttigieg. “1,163 days later, that Admin exited without connecting even 1 person & without turning even 1 shovel worth of dirt.”

    “If we need expertise in incompetence, will reach out,” he added, accompanied by the peace sign emoji. 

    Carr was responding to a message Buttigieg posted on Friday that took issue with the Department of Government Efficiency, which has become a common target of Democrats as Elon Musk and the DOGE team work through federal government agencies in its quest of extinguishing government fraud and overspending. 

    FCC COMMISSIONER HITS BIDEN ADMIN FOR $42 BILLION IN UNSPENT HIGH SPEED INTERNET FUNDS

    Federal Communication Commission chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into radio station controlled by left-wing billionaire George Soros. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

    “Incompetence in Washington puts every American at risk, no matter how you voted. No one should be happy that the DOGE team – the same folks who randomly published classified U.S. security information online today – wants access to your bank account & Social Security numbers,” Buttigieg posted to X on Friday, referring to accusations DOGE posted classified information to its website, which the White House has refuted. 

    FCC LAUNCHES PROBE INTO NBC NEWS PARENT COMCAST ‘TO ROOT OUT INVIDIOUS FORMS OF DEI DISCRIMINATION’

    The Biden administration in 2021 approved a $42.5 billion provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was directed to a program intended to deliver internet to underserved and rural areas of the nation. Four years later, however, the program has not connected users to the internet, the Washington Policy Center found in a report last year. 

    Biden, Carr, Buttigieg

    Former President Biden, FCC chair Brendan Carr, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.  (Getty Images)

    States were required to submit plans to the federal government by 2023 related to the investment and deployment of the internet services. Former President Joe Biden, upon the states submitting their plans, celebrated the internet initiative as similar to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which brought electricity to homes nationwide. 

    “What we’re doing is, as I said, not unlike what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he brought electricity to nearly every American home and farm in our nation. Today, Kamala and I are making an equally historic investment to connect everyone in America — everyone in America to high-speed Internet by — and affordable high-speed Internet — by 2030,” Biden said at the White House in June of 2023. 

    Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during a press conference on June 28, 2021, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

    Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during a press conference on June 28, 2021, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

    Carr has frequently taken issue with the $42.5 billion program, including citing it in X posts before President Donald Trump’s election win in November, and the president subsequently appointing the Republican FCC commissioner as chair of the government agency. 

    FCC CHAIR SAYS IT’S ‘REALLY CONCERNING’ THAT A SOROS-BACKED RADIO STATION EXPOSED UNDERCOVER ICE AGENTS

    “In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans,” wrote on X back in June “Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest.”

    Joe Biden

    President Joe Biden speaks about his administration on Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

    Carr explained to Fox Business back in June that while the funds were allocated to states to deliver internet services through the program, the Biden administration was at fault for the lack of progress. 

    “There’s no question that the 2021 law put some process in place, but the Biden administration decided to layer on top of that a Byzantine additional set of hoops that states have to go through before the administration will approve them to actually get these funds and start completing the builds,” Carr told FOX Business in an interview in June. 

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    He added that while some high-speed internet projects had connected people during the Biden administration, none were funded through the $42.5 billion allocation from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. 

    Fox News Digital’s Breck Dumas contributed to this report. 

  • Pete Buttigieg blasts Trump after president excoriates him during press briefing

    Pete Buttigieg blasts Trump after president excoriates him during press briefing

    Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg fired back at President Donald Trump on Thursday after the commander in chief blasted the Democrat during a press briefing about the deadly midair collision between a military helicopter and a passenger airplane that occurred on Wednesday night.

    Trump sarcastically called Buttigieg “a real winner.”

    “He’s a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground. And he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls—,” the president said. 

    PETE BUTTIGIEG GIVING ‘SERIOUS LOOK’ TO 2026 SENATE RUN IN TRUMP-WON MICHIGAN

    Left: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters on Sept. 27, 2023 in Washington, D.C.; Right: President Donald Trump looks on after delivering remarks at the House Republican Members Conference Dinner at Trump National Doral Miami, in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 27, 2025. (Left: Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Right: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

    Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana Mayor who served as secretary of the Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden, sounded off in a post on social media.

    “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” Buttigieg declared in a post on X.

    “President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,” he added.

    Buttigieg mounted a presidential bid in 2019, but dropped out the next year and endorsed Biden.

    Buttigieg is reportedly “taking a serious look” at the possibility of running for U.S. Senate in in Michigan.

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    “Pete is exploring all of his options on how he can be helpful and continue to serve,” a source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking told Fox News Digital. “He’s honored to be mentioned for this, and he’s taking a serious look.”

    Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report

  • Pete Buttigieg considering 2026 Senate run in Trump-won Michigan

    Pete Buttigieg considering 2026 Senate run in Trump-won Michigan

    Former Secretary of Transportation and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is not ruling out a possible Senate run in Michigan in 2026, following Sen. Gary Peters’ decision not to seek re-election. 

    “Pete is exploring all of his options on how he can be helpful and continue to serve,” a source familiar with the millennial Democrat’s thinking told Fox News Digital. 

    “He’s honored to be mentioned for this, and he’s taking a serious look.”

    GARY PETERS, DEMOCRATIC SENATOR FROM TRUMP STATE, WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION

    Buttigieg is weighing his options ahead of the 2026 race. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    Buttigieg’s potential interest in running for Senate was first reported by Axios. 

    “I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation. I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life,” Peters told the Detroit News in an interview published on Tuesday. 

    TRUMP’S MOST VULNERABLE NOMINEES RFK JR, TULSI GABBARD GET BACK-TO-BACK HEARINGS

    Gary Peters and Donald Trump

    Peters announced he won’t seek re-election. (Getty Images)

    “And that goes back to 2008 when I first won that House seat. I thought it would be for a matter of a few terms that I would serve, and then I would go back to private life,” he said. 

    Peters chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) twice and oversaw Democrat Elissa Slotkin’s Senate win in Michigan in 2024, despite the state swinging for President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. 

    PETE HEGSETH CONFIRMED TO LEAD PENTAGON AFTER VP VANCE CASTS TIE-BREAKING VOTE

    Elissa Slotkin

    Slotkin defeated her Republican opponent. (Chip Somodevilla)

    Following Peters’ announcement, DSCC spokesman David Bergstein said in a statement, “No Republican has won a Michigan Senate race in 30 years – including last cycle when Democrats won an open Senate seat even as Trump won the state – and Democrats will continue to hold this seat in 2026.” 

    TIM SCOTT EMPHASIZES ‘RESULTS’ OVER RECONCILIATION PROCESS AS HE STAYS OUT OF DEBATE

    Tim Scott

    Scott is chairing the NRSC for the 2026 cycle.  (Reuters)

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    National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in his own statement, “Gary Peters is reading the room. After spending years ignoring illegal immigration and destroying his state’s auto industry, Michigan is better off without him. We’re committed to giving them a fighter that will stand with President Trump to restore the economic prosperity and security of our country.”