'Way too many VIPs': Sean Duffy throws Pentagon under the bus after helicopter mishap
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy lashed out at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's agency after a helicopter flight from the Pentagon caused two commercial aircraft to be diverted.
"There was this issue about an army helicopter in the D.C. flight area and who was flying on it and why it flew in a pattern that forced two commercial airlines to have to reroute and land in another place," Fox News host Martha MacCallum told Duffy on Tuesday. "Were you able to find out who was on that flight and why, given what happened with the 67 people whose lives were lost in a similar situation, why would that even be happening?"
"So there are way too many VIPs is what they call them at the Pentagon," Duffy replied. "I mean, I look around the White House, there's a lot of really important people here. They take a Suburban."
"Why is the Pentagon that much more sophisticated where they have to take helos, helicopters, in a really busy airspace?" he said.
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"So you still don't know who was on that flight because our Pentagon folks say that it was a training mission, not a VIP," MacCallum pressed.
"So, but here's the thing, training missions oftentimes, if you ever go to a football game and you have a flyover with F-16s, guess what that's called? A training mission," Duffy explained. "And how many training missions are you doing in the middle of the day?"
"Who qualifies for a VIP? Is it a two-star general, a three-star general?" he added. "And we should know as Americans, again, it's a civilian, it's a civilian military. They're supposed to work for all of us. We should know who qualifies for that VIP mission."