It’s not exactly a secret that there have been serious lapses of late at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey, including instances in which air traffic controllers temporarily lost communication with planes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has nevertheless insisted that the public need not avoid the airport.
In fact, as recently as Sunday, on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker specifically asked Duffy, “Big picture, Mr. Secretary, is it safe to fly in and out of Newark airport right now?” He replied, “It is. I fly out of Newark all the time. My family flies out of Newark.”
One day later, as Gizmodo noted, Duffy appeared on a SiriusXM program and said, “My wife was flying out of Newark tomorrow. I switched her flight to LaGuardia.”
At face value, the comments were hardly comforting for those flying in and out of Newark. If the U.S. transportation secretary changed his wife’s flight out of the airport, in the wake of unsettling incidents, what about everyone else?
Two days later, as Politico reported, Duffy took a minute to set the record straight.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday defended his recent decision to move his wife from a flight that was to take off from troubled Newark Liberty International Airport to one departing from New York’s LaGuardia Airport — saying he did it to ensure she could make an event, not because of concerns about safety.
The House Appropriations Committee scheduled a hearing on the Transportation Department’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, and Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman — who, as a New Jersey congresswoman, has a special interest in Newark’s airport — suggested that Duffy “diverted your wife from Newark airport to LaGuardia out of a sense of security.”
“That’s not true,” Duffy said, though he quickly added: “It’s partially true.”
The Politico report quoted the secretary explaining, “With all the delays at Newark — my wife had to do an event and she was in the city of New York, and so I did — I moved her from Newark to LaGuardia, not for safety, but because I needed her flight to fly. She had to get there.”
Watson Coleman seemed satisfied with the explanation, and the hearing proceeded.
To be sure, Duffy’s credibility is not beyond reproach, but as best as I can tell, there’s no evidence challenging the secretary’s version of events related to his wife and her flight.
