Buttigieg takes swipe at Trump administration amid FAA flight chaos
DENVER — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took a swipe at the Trump administration’s handling of Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop, joking that he would help stranded travelers rebook flights as delays and cancellations continued.I’ll begin with a public service announcement," Buttigieg told reporters in Denver."I will be available in the hotel bar following the concert for anybody who needs to rebook their flights or get a refund per your rights."He made the remark as the "What’s Next" conference wrapped up in Denver.
The two-day gathering, hosted by Majority Democrats, brought leaders together to discuss the party’s direction after its midterm victories.DEMS DESCEND ON DENVER TO SIZE UP 2028; WE ASKED WHO WANTS IN THE RACEFormer Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joked he would help stranded travelers rebook flights as he weighed in on the FAA ground stop.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News Digital)The FAA lifted the ground stop shortly after 8 p.m.
Friday, more than four hours after it began, but flights remained delayed and canceled over the weekend.The agency cited safety concerns and serious air traffic control communications issues.Buttigieg, who said he had no inside information about the cause of the ground stop, later questioned why the aviation system’s safeguards had not prevented an outage of that scale.
He said he was watching the disruption as a traveler with a flight scheduled for Saturday."The system has many redundancies in it, so that normally, if there’s one point of failure, something else can catch it," he said."It is not clear to me why that redundancy did not prevent an outage of this magnitude."SCHUMER'S LEADERSHIP RIVAL REVEALS MAJOR SENATE RULE CHANGE HE'D PURSUE IF ELECTEDTransportation Secretary Sean Duffy, left, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appear during a news conference in the James S.
Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Nov.13, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
(Shawn Thew/EPA/...