The CEO of Delta Airlines effectively debunked CBS News efforts to hold President Donald Trump responsible for recent flight disasters.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian defended the president and dismissed claims that the administration’s cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had a negative effect on airline safety.
“Do those cuts worry you and do you think that impacts safety?” co-anchor Gayle King asked Bastian on “CBS Mornings” Wednesday.
CBS’s Gayle King tries to blame Trump for the plane crashes, is debunked by Delta’s CEO pic.twitter.com/P9m5SxYKOQ
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 19, 2025
“Do these cuts affect you?” she pressed.
“The cuts do not affect us, Gayle,” Bastian responded.
“I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA. And the cuts, I understand, were 300 people, and they were in non-critical safety functions,” he added.
“The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies,” he continued before shutting down the narrative. “They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators, and safety investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all.”
Trump’s critics have been trying to tie his actions over his first days in office to the deadly air crashes in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Nome, Alaska.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to social media to claim that the “massive layoffs at the FAA” were making skies “less safe.”
“Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted to X in a lengthy response to comments from former Transportation Secretary Pete 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Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system.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.
Here’s the… https://t.co/LCL1dswC2T
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) February 18, 2025
The FAA is continuing to hire and onboard “air traffic controllers and safety professionals, including mechanics and others who support them,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson told Fox Business in a statement, adding that the “agency has retained employees who perform safety-critical functions.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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