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Sean Duffy: “This is strictly safety. And I'm doing what I can in a mess…”

Featuring: Sean Duffy, Republican | Secretary of Transportation | National

Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown

Published November 9, 2025 | Video Starts at 07:11

But if I can, I'm going to use them. Everyone in this administration, at the direction of President Trump, has said minimize the pain on Americans. So this is not political. This is strictly safety. And I'm doing what I can in a mess that Democrats have put on my lap. and. And now I'm trying to keep the American people safe and keep airplanes flying. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, thank you so much for your time, sir. Really appreciate it. (07:11–07:18)

CLAIM

Asserts that the current situation is a safety issue and attributes the problem to Democrats.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Sean Duffy

“18 of 22 controllers in Atlanta didn't show up.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 00:18-00:22
“We had 81 staffing triggers throughout the national airspace yesterday.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 00:21-00:26
“I'm short air traffic controllers. I'm trying to get more air traffic controllers into the towers and be certified, but I'm about 1,000 to…”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 02:38-02:49
“I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown. I'm now up to 15 to 20 a day, are retiring.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 02:54-03:02
“We're day 40 now [of the government shutdown].”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 01:49-01:51
“The largest number of outage of controllers was on Halloween the 31st.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 01:52-01:57
“We're going to reduce traffic by 10%. It's at. We've reduced it by 4% right now. Next Friday, it's going to be at 10% to reduce the pressure…”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 03:38-03:49
“Chuck Schumer... voted 14 times to not open the government up.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 05:20-06:30
“We have loss of separation in the airspace. Those numbers are going up, more ground incursions.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 05:47-05:53
“Everyone in this administration, at the direction of President Trump, has said minimize the pain on Americans.”
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Speaks With CNN's Jake Tapper About Travel Delays From Gov't Shutdown | Uploaded November 9, 2025 | 07:05-07:11