US Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) is a lovely and calm man. Yet, he humiliated one of Democrat Joe Biden’s nominees just by calmly asking some straightforward questions about the basic foundation of the agency that POTUS wants the nominee to run. Watching the exchange on the Congress floor is just another example of how unserious Biden and his administration are about the critical work that needs to be done for the American people.
Budd was not alone in his concern over Biden’s pick.
Denver International Airport chief Phil Washington faced questions from Republican senators Wednesday about his qualifications and past during what some in the media called a “combative confirmation hearing” on his nomination to head the Federal Aviation Administration.
Many people saw a nominee who had no business being at that level of running an agency responsible for safeguarding American people’s lives as they traveled by air.
News of the incompetency of the nominee comes at the same time that Aviation regulators are getting ready to hold an emergency safety summit after numerous ‘close calls’ between aircraft and top brass ordering a review of the country’s Aviation system.
Philip Lebeau reported on the details of the urgent meeting for CNBC News, saying:
“The system dramatically increased the number of flights compared to two or three years ago, and as a result, several new people are working in the system. Whether Pilots. Whether air traffic control or ramp workers, you’ve got a lot of people who have moved into new jobs; you add that along with the congestion, and what you have is a situation where we’ve seen several relatively high-profile, runway incursions or close calls and that’s why the FAA is holding a safety Summit next week.
There will be representatives from Airlines and airports, Regulators, and Pilots’ unions, and they’re going to focus on a couple of things: Runway incursions, basically where you have a couple of commercial airplanes that may be either come close to hitting each other, maybe it took the wings.
“In some cases or near-miss incidents were most notable happened in Austin,” he said, showing an animation that was put together by the office of Senator Ted Cruz, describing the footage:
“Again, this is animation. This is not the actual incident that took place, but this gives you a sense of what was likely to happen if the pilot of the FedEx, which is the airline airplane in the air there in this animation when came out of very foggy conditions and saw that they would have been landing on top of the Southwest aircraft.
They immediately pulled up while the Southwest plane hit the brakes. So that’s an example of the type of near-miss that investigators and those in the industry are saying, look, we’ve got to figure out what is happening.”
The reporter went on, adding:
“That’s why FAA acting administrator Billy Nolan has said, let’s have a summit. Let’s get everybody at the table. We’ll talk about what the issues are, and we’ll talk about some possible solutions.
Though we know this industry does not move quickly regarding solutions, as you look at the airline index, remember that the number of us commercial airplane departures is approaching 2019 levels, but we’re not there yet.
We still have an industry that is up-gauging using larger aircraft, but we do not see more departures. It’s close, but we’re not there yet. What we are seeing is an increase in the number of people who are flying because of the demand that is out there. Looking at the significant Airline stocks, more people are flying now than pre-pandemic. Not by a lot, but a little bit more again; that’s because you have larger aircraft, and the airlines as much as they can are adding to their schedules because they want to take advantage of the number of people who want to fly.”
So air travel is increasing, and so are the risks to people who fly.
Cruz slammed Washington, Biden’s nominee:
“God forbid, sometime in the next two years, we see a horrific airline crash. You sure don’t want to be the Democrat senator that voted to confirm a guy to the FAA that knows nothing about airline safety.”
One sure wouldn’t want to be a Democrat Senator that would vote to confirm a guy to the FAA that knows NOTHING about airline safety. pic.twitter.com/YLd5I8wZSp
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 5, 2023
Some media may have found it combative as an excuse to help cover up the fact that Washington couldn’t answer easy questions.
At Washington’s Senate confirmation hearing this week, Budd asked Biden’s nominee for Director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seven basic questions about aviation policy and related issues.
Washington didn’t know.
Humiliatingly, Washington went 0 for 7, failing to answer a single question correctly and excusing himself several times by claiming he is “not a pilot,” even though he would oversee tens of thousands of pilots if confirmed, as reported by Vinn news, adding:
“It is well-known that Biden proudly announced he chose Kamala Harris and Ketanji Brown-Jackson because of their skin color, not qualifications. Therefore, it would not be shocking if Biden chose Washington because he is black.
If so, it would put our airspace in peril by choosing a nominee for one of the most crucial positions in government, the person who keeps our skies safe based on skin color rather than merit.
Budd tweeted a video of the questioning. He wrote: “I asked Biden’s nominee for FAA Administrator 7 basic questions about aviation policy. He went 0 for 7. We can’t have an FAA Administrator who needs on the job training.”
WATCH:
I asked Biden's nominee for FAA Administrator 7 basic questions about aviation policy.
He went 0 for 7.
We can't have an FAA Administrator who needs on the job training. @SenateCommerce pic.twitter.com/nzGiEUxr8w
— Senator Ted Budd (@SenTedBuddNC) March 1, 2023
