Sean Duffy threatens to fire air traffic controllers because 10% of them call in sick during the lockdown

Sean Duffy, former reality TV presenter and current Transport Minister, is upset about air traffic controllers calling in sick during the government shutdown, causing an increase in delays at airports. All over the country. On Thursday, Duffy threatened to fire those who didn’t show up for work, calling them “problem kids.”

“I think what happens here is 90% of the controllers show up and come to work, but 10% of them attack,” Duffy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney.

Duffy then turned to partisan talking points about Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the US Senate, who was demanding that Republicans negotiate on health care to secure Democratic votes to reopen the government, which was shut down on October 1.

“They’re attacking Chuck Schumer,” Duffy awkwardly insisted to air traffic controllers. “They’re frustrated because Chuck Schumer is putting illegal immigrants and their health care at the top of their paychecks, and he’s putting illegal immigrants ahead of Americans. And they’re saying, ‘You know what? We’re going to call in sick today.’

The idea that Democrats want to provide health care to illegal immigrants to reopen the government is false and has been debunked by countless major media outlets. But it’s a common line of attack from President Donald Trump and his allies like Duffy.

In fact, Democrats want to restore Medicaid funding that was cut under the “big, beautiful bill” passed by President Trump in July. The false claim that this has anything to do with illegal immigration is linked to the 1.4 million legal immigrants losing Medicaid coverage, among millions of other Americans harmed by the Republican bill. In total, about 17 million people are expected to lose their health insurance, according to estimates KFF.

But Duffy, like other members of the Trump regime, isn’t too concerned about the facts. The Minister of Transport is trying to scare people, including air traffic controllers who are worried about whether they will get paid or not. Federal workers are scheduled to get paid early next week, but they will not get checks if the government remains closed.

To further complicate matters, President Trump has suggested that furloughed workers do not need to be paid once the government reopens, a direct violation of the law passed by Congress in 2019 during Trump’s first term. News has leaked that the Office of Management and Budget is discussing the move. Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisted ABC News That this is a “non-issue,” and that furloughed workers will eventually get paid, but perhaps he should take this up with Trump.

Trump said Tuesday that some workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of” during a government shutdown.

It’s easy to see why even the most obedient and Trump-supporting federal employees would be concerned about their pay in this environment. People deserve to be paid for the work they do. But Duffy stoked the fire, insisting that any air traffic controller who was sick could be fired, which certainly wouldn’t help when there were already severe shortages.

“When you come to work, you get paid. If you don’t come to work, you don’t get paid. And this is how we’re going to do it,” Duffy said. Thursday.

“But listen, we’re also looking at whether we have a small, persistent subset of consoles that don’t show up for work,” Duffy said, “and they’re the problem kids. Listen, we need more consoles, but we need the best and the brightest, the custom consoles, and if we have some from our staff that aren’t as dedicated as we need to be, we’ll let them go.”

Duffy, who previously said he didn’t want air traffic controllers working by moonlight Uber driversHe went on to praise those who still show up to work without pay.

“I want to be clear, 90 … 95 percent of them are wonderful, beautiful, wonderful American patriots who show up to work every day, even though they may not get paid on time, they show up,” Duffy said. “It’s the small fraction of people who don’t come to work that can create this massive disruption. And that’s what you see extending across our skies today.”