On Sunday, on CNN’s State of the Union, Dana Bash extensively spoke with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, covering various topics. Amid discussions on the looming government shutdown, the conversation veered toward former President Donald Trump’s reported derogatory remarks about disabled veterans, as highlighted in a recent profile.
According to The Atlantic’sreport, during a Pentagon event, Trump complained to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Mark Milley, about the appearance of an army veteran who had lost a leg in combat.
Former Army Capt. Luis Avila, sang at the welcome ceremony for Milley in 2019. Avila had lost one leg when an explosive device went off in Afghanistan, and he also had suffered heart attacks, strokes, and brain damage due to his service.
“Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that,” Trump reportedly said to Milley. He told Milley not to invite Avila to any other events.
Milley invited Avila to sing at his retirement party recently.
Reacting to this report, Buttigieg, a veteran, was quick to condemn the reported comments.
“It is just the latest in a pattern of outrageous attacks on the people who keep this country safe,” he told Bash
Recalling his military service, Buttigieg shared, “September puts me in a reflective mood because it’s actually tomorrow, nine years ago now that I got back to South Bend. After my one tour in Afghanistan, I served with people who did five, six, seven tours, some of them after being injured.”
Buttigieg went on to share stories of resilience among his fellow service members.
“I served with a guy who had the fin of a rocket go through his tricep while he was standing. He was standing in Gosney province, and miraculously, the rocket didn’t blow up and kill him, but he was eager to get back onto his next tour,” the transportation secretary said.
On the topic of the looming government shutdown, Buttigieg laid out the potential ramifications, especially concerning air travel.
He stressed, “A shutdown would include just in the transportation side alone, shutting down air traffic control training at the exact moment when the country recognizes the need for more, not less, ATC staffing. And when we finally got cancellations back at or below normal rates, that’s just one example.”
“The air traffic controllers who would be working in the towers, they wouldn’t get paid. They’re under enough stress as it is doing that job without having to come into work with the added stress of not receiving a paycheck,” Buttigieg continued, highlighting the strain on air traffic controllers.
Asked by Bash about how passengers would be affected, Buttigieg noted, “One thing that we have been through a lot of is disruptions, right? Those disruptions are largely caused by the weather, but sometimes, it can be because of staffing issues. That’s exactly what we’re trying to grow the workforce. This would stop us in our tracks.”
Buttigieg also touched upon how a government shutdown would halt the modernization efforts necessary for smoother travel.
“In January, there was an outage of a critical IT system that the FAA has been working to modernize,” he said. “A shutdown would slow down our progress, modernizing technology at the exact moment when we need to do it.”
