Who's responsible for the aviation mess?

Duffy is a classic example of someone who knows who’s responsible for the bungles on his watch, and it’s never him. He has spent the last weeks and months blaming the Biden administration for numerous operational failures in our air traffic system since he took over

- Michael Hiltzik, Tribune News Service

Picking out the worst performer among Donald Trump's Cabinet appointees is a tough job —it's a competitive race, after all—but one member who deserves to be in the running by almost any measure of incompetence is Sean Duffy, the secretary of Transportation. Duffy is a classic example of someone who knows who’s responsible for the s****ups on his watch, and it’s never him. He has spent the last weeks and months blaming the Biden administration for numerous operational failures in our air traffic system since he took over. Those include the Jan. 29 midair collision over Washington, DC, that cost 67 air passengers their lives, as well as several near-misses on the ground. Some Trump Cabinet members have more important portfolios than Duffy — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, neither of whom has displayed anything approaching basic competence at their job, come immediately to mind.

But the American public is bound to be particularly sensitive to the functioning of our transportation infrastructure. That's especially true when it comes to the safety and reliability of air travel; every flight delay and safety-related mishap hits American travellers in the gut.

The highest-profile failure (so far) is the disaster named Newark Liberty International Airport, where flight delays can last for the better part of a day and questions about safety are rife. Duffy, a former reality show contestant and four-term Congressman, comes to the blame game with dirty hands. Let's take a look.

First, here’s what he's said about the condition of FAA operations and staffing, “I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration,” he said on Monday during a news conference at DOT headquarters. “Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that they knew was broken.”