Sean Duffy’s crisis communications skills are being called among the worst ever. Now he’s going for round two.
Sean Duffy is taking his show on the road—or, more accurately, to the Sunday-morning talk-show circuit.
President Donald Trump’s embattled transportation secretary, who has become the face of the worst aviation crisis since 9/11, is embarking on a four-network media blitz Sunday as the administration scrambles to contain the fallout from Friday’s nationwide ground stop.
Duffy, 55, is scheduled to appear on CBS’s Face the Nation, CNN’s State of the Union, NBC’s Meet the Press, and Fox News Sunday, giving him plenty of opportunities to attempt to reassure frustrated travelers that the administration has the situation under control.
But the former Real World star has already earned scathing reviews for his handling of the crisis, including from a longtime White House official who described one of his press conferences as “perhaps the worst” he had ever witnessed.
Sean Duffy speaks at the White House as Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin looks on.
Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism adviser who served under four presidents, told CNN on Saturday that Duffy’s joint appearance with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin “did not inspire confidence.”
“It was perhaps the worst crisis communications press conference I have ever seen,” Clarke said, comparing it unfavorably with briefings by county sheriffs responding to active shooter situations.
Duffy has also faced calls to resign over his response to the four-hour shutdown, which has left airlines scrambling to recover and passengers facing days of disruptions.
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And his demands for billions of dollars to overhaul the nation’s aging air traffic control system have drawn fresh scrutiny of his own voting record.
At a Friday press conference, Duffy demanded $50 billion in federal funding to modernize the system, despite having voted against a 2019 spending bill that included more than $10 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration during his time in Congress.
“The president’s asked for $30 billion. I want $50 billion,” Duffy said. “Let’s invest so we never have to come at 8:30 at night and have a press conference on why air travel was shut down.”
The secretary offered a possible explanation for the outage Saturday, suggesting a faulty wire switch may have been responsible, though the investigation remains ongoing.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said investigators had found “zero evidence of anything nefarious,” pointing to an equipment failure rather than a cyberattack.
Meanwhile, Trump has remained out of public view since the crisis began, leaving Duffy to do the talking as the nation’s air travel system struggles to recover.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Transportation and the White House for comment.
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