Air travelers in the U.S. during this year’s holiday season have faced sometimes serious problems with their flights as the rate of flight cancellations, mostly on Southwest Airlines as of late, has dramatically risen, with accompanying delays exacerbating the difficulties.
It was days ago, on the evening of the day after Christmas, when the federal Department of Transportation — led by Biden pick Pete Buttigieg — publicly shared an interest in determining exactly what was going on with Southwest. Yet, a post went up on the Twitter account for the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday rhetorically asking about Buttigieg’s whereabouts and implying he wasn’t particularly devoted to solving these dilemmas facing plane travelers — as though he hasn’t done now multiple interviews while he and the department share info about the situation. Just hours before the House Judiciary GOP’s post, the department even said on Twitter Buttigieg spoke with union leaders and the Southwest CEO, relaying “the Department’s expectation that Southwest meet its obligations to passengers and workers and take steps to prevent a situation like this from happening again.”
Did whoever posted the House GOP tweet miss basically the entirety of the relevant news? “Where’s @SecretaryPete? #SouthwestAirlines,” Republicans said. Well, Buttigieg was paying attention. “Good morning!” he replied early the next day. “At the moment I’m on Capitol Hill, not far from your offices. We’ll keep getting results for passengers using our authorities & resources as an agency. If you’re calling for policies that would deepen those resources, please be specific – I’d welcome the dialogue.” The Transportation Department can’t just force Southwest to put planes in the air with some big button, but the pressure is continuing. The department can hear complaints at its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection.
Although it’s unclear who actually posts on the Twitter account for the Republicans of the House Judiciary Committee (it’s probably staff, but is there some kind of review process for prospective posts?), the top Republican on that panel is Jim Jordan of Ohio, who certainly isn’t known for being reserved. The same Twitter account had a post up for awhile that just listed the first names of Kanye West (now legally known as Ye), Elon Musk, and Donald Trump for some reason. As controversy around West mounted from his embrace of anti-Semitism, the post — eventually! — disappeared.
Buttigieg has helped lead federal efforts to respond to supply chain issues and implement portions of the infrastructure spending bill that President Joe Biden signed after high-profile bipartisan negotiations in Congress. Earlier this month, Buttigieg highlighted industry discussions in which the administration was involved while facing supply chain delays exemplified by waits for ships to unload, and a White House release from much earlier highlighted company commitments from a series of firms for night work on removing shipping containers from port facilities readying for more.
The House Judiciary GOP tweet saying "Kanye. Elon. Trump" has been deleted after Kanye West appeared on InfoWars and praised Hitler pic.twitter.com/syUbYNfbv9
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) December 1, 2022
