Sean Duffy, the former reality TV host and current Secretary of Transportation, is upset with air traffic controllers who are calling out sick during the government shutdown, which has caused a surge in delays at airports across the country. On Thursday, Duffy threatened to fire those who aren’t showing up to work, calling them “problem children.”
“I think what’s happening here, 90% of the controllers, they show up, they come to work, but 10% of them are lashing out,” Duffy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney.
Duffy then pivoted into partisan talking points about Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the U.S. Senate, who has been asking for Republicans to negotiate on health care to secure Democratic votes to reopen the government, which was shut down on Oct. 1.
“They’re lashing out at Chuck Schumer,” Duffy bizarrely insisted of the air traffic controllers. “They’re frustrated that Chuck Schumer is putting illegal immigrants and their health care over their paychecks, putting illegals over Americans. And they’re like, you know what? We’re going to call in sick today.”
The idea that Democrats want to give health care to undocumented immigrants to reopen the government is untrue and has been debunked by countless major media outlets. But it’s a common line of attack from President Donald Trump and his allies like Duffy.
In reality, Democrats want to restore funding for Medicaid that was cut by President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” in July. The false claim that this has anything to do with illegal immigration is tied to the 1.4 million legal immigrants who are losing Medicaid coverage, among the millions of other Americans who are being harmed by the Republican bill. In total, about 17 million people are expected to lose their health insurance, according to KFF.
But Duffy, just like other members of the Trump regime, isn’t terribly concerned about the facts. The Transportation Secretary is trying to scare people, including air traffic controllers who are worried about whether they’ll be paid. Federal workers are scheduled to be paid early next week, but won’t be getting checks if the government is still shut down.
To complicate things even further, President Trump has suggested that furloughed workers don’t need to be paid once the government reopens, a direct violation of a law passed by Congress in 2019 during Trump’s first term. News has leaked that the Office of Management and Budget has been discussing the move. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has insisted to ABC News that it’s a “non-issue,” and that furloughed workers will eventually be paid, but he should probably take that up with Trump.
Trump said on Tuesday that some workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of,” during the government shutdown.
It’s easy to see why even the most obedient, Trump-supporting federal worker would be worried about their paycheck in this environment. People deserve to be paid for the work that they do. But Duffy has thrown gasoline on the fire, insisting that any air traffic controllers who call out sick could be fired, something that certainly won’t help when there’s already a critical shortage.
“When you come to work, you get paid. If you don’t come to work, you don’t get paid. And so that’s the way we’re going to do it,” Duffy said Thursday.
“But listen, we’re also looking at, if we have a continual small subset of controllers that that don’t show up to work,” said Duffy, “and they’re the problem children, listen, we need more controllers, but we need the best and the brightest, the dedicated controllers, and if we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated, like we need, we’re gonna let ’em go.”
Duffy, who has previously said that he doesn’t want air traffic controllers to moonlight as Uber drivers, went on to praise those who were still showing up for work without pay.
“I wanna be clear, 90… 95% of them are amazing, beautiful, wonderful American patriots that show up to work every day, even though they may not get that paycheck on time, they show up,” said Duffy. “It’s a small fraction of people who don’t come to work that can create this massive disruption. And that’s what you’re seeing rippling through our skies today.”