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The Dan Bongino Show
Plane Crashes, Media Deception & Big Families | Evita & Sean Duffy (Early Edition With Evita)
01:01:46
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- [00:10]
Evita Duffy
Good morning and welcome to Bongino Report, early edition. Today we have a very special guest, the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, and my dad. Dad, thanks for being here.
- [00:21]
Sean Duffy
It's good to be here. Evita, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. First time, my debut on THE EARLY edition. So thanks for having me.
- [00:28]
Evita Duffy
A debut on the EARLY Edition. I'm so honored to have a cabinet member here. It was a tough guest to get, so thank you.
- [00:36]
Sean Duffy
I was getting spammed and I said.
- [00:37]
Evita Duffy
Finally, yes, yes, he'll come on my show. I appreciate it. And we're cover some serious topics today, some fun ones. But first, we're going to start with some serious ones because there's a lot of mass hysteria right now. You're the secretary of transportation and people are all over the Internet, right and left saying that planes are falling out of the sky. And this narrative has been really, I think, ignited by your first day in office. You were sworn in by J.D. vance. I was with you in D.C. that evening. You had this tragic, historic plane crash where an American Airlines flight collides with this military helicopter. What was going through your head that night?
- [01:21]
Sean Duffy
Your point? Right. I was, I was just in the job. Everyone else had gone home from D.C. you actually were there in the hotel with me. And it's interesting in today's social media, you would think I might know what's happening first, but I found out first on Twitter, moments after the plane went down on Twitter, we were getting reports. And so it was what, it probably took me 15, 20 minutes. I brushed my teeth. I was going to bed, put my clothes back on and went down to the faa, where my whole team came in along with the FAA team. And listen, we were tracking the audio, watching what was happening with the recovery and getting a lot of information flowing as to what the situation was and what had actually happened. So, but, but, but to your point, it's my, it's my first 10 hours in the job. And this, this happens. And, but again, if you've had life experiences and you know how to handle pressure and you know how to handle a crisis, crises you can step in and you can handle, you can handle anything. And again, this was, I mean, this was horrific. 67 people lost their lives in this crash and it shouldn't have happened. There were, there were error after error that took place in perfect timing for these two aircraft to collide. And it was, it was a sign, though, that something, something else is wrong in the system. And this is the time that we have to take as Americans to Fix a really outdated, antiquated system that is our air traffic control system.
- [02:52]
Evita Duffy
Yeah. Well, you're right. So everybody had my mom and all the kids were there for your swearing in with JD and we had actually been to the Oval Office that day, too. By that point, they had left. They had gone back to New Jersey. The kids had school. I was still there. I was gonna do my show. And I did do my show from the Rumble studio the very next morning in D.C. so I was in the hotel room and I think I was the one who told you, like, oh, my goodness, I'm on my phone and there was a crash. And then you obviously saw it on your feed, too. And it's so fascinating that that happened before the corporate media even knew it was going on. Right. We had all these reports on social media. What's happened with the crash. Right now, I think people have a lot of questions and we get new information, like weeks apart about what actually happened that evening. Can you tell us, just give us the overview of what happened, what went wrong? Evening. What do people need to know? Because I think there's still a lot of confusion and a lot of fear.
- [03:47]
Sean Duffy
Yes. So information is shared. You know, I think pretty quick timing from the ntsb. The NTSB is an independent agency from the Department of Transportation. They do the investigations on all kinds of crashes or close calls or incidents. And so they've released a lot of information. They have a report coming out this week. It's going to be their preliminary report. The final report will probably take another year, year and a half to get out. But what we do know is that we had an American aircraft coming in on its approach to Runway 33. It comes in across the Potomac and it's a short Runway. And oftentimes smaller airplanes will be asked to land there at the same time. You had a military Black Hawk that was flying a check mission where someone, one of the pilots, needed to be checked out to be certified from the military. And they were flying instead of on the eastern bank of the river, they were flying out in the middle of the river. Now, it was still in their lane of travel. They could be there. But most of the pilots fly closer to the bank, which is further away from Runway 33. This helicopter was not they. There is an elevation ceiling for those helicopters at 200ft. They can't go above 200ft. This helicopter was flying at over 300ft. Not only that, they were flying the aircraft with night vision goggles. So night vision goggles again. Your peripheral vision is impacted. Lights are Distorted. And so those three things together brought the helicopter right into the flight path of the landing American Airlines flight. So I think when we see the report, there'll be a lot of blame on the military and on the air traffic control. Another thing happened. You usually have one controller for helicopters, another controller for civilian aircraft. Well, if the weather is good and the traffic is down, they will consolidate those two controllers into one position and that's what they did this night. The problem was that, yeah, it was a clear night, but there was quite a bit of traffic out of DCA and that position probably shouldn't have been consolidated. And maybe had we had two controllers, this incident wouldn't have happened. But here's how. I don't want to go into two. I don't want to bore you, but what happens is the air traffic controllers will reach out to the helicopter and say, hey, in essence we have a landing aircraft. Do you see it? The aircraft, military aircraft or any helicopter in the region will say, yes, I see it. And then air traffic control will say, can you commit to maintaining visual separation? You see it and you'll stay away from it. The helicopter pilot will say, yes, I see it and I'll stay away from it. That's what happened in this situation on this night. Well, obviously they must not have seen the landing American aircraft and obviously they didn't stay away from it. And I think just because accidents haven't happened, people have become really loose with the rules and had become lazy with regard to the rules. And this is what happened. 67 people lost their lives. And so after the crash, I directed the FAA to restrict the airspace around D.C. around this Runway 33. So there's no helicopters that can fly up and down the river except for the President or if there's a life saving mission, there's a car wreck and you got to go pick something up and bring them to the hospital. You can fly that route. And if you do fly along the river, whether it's the President or a life saving helicopter mission, air travel shut down. We'll divert aircraft. You do not now have landing aircraft. Helicopters are in the same airspace.
- [07:41]
Evita Duffy
Do we have any idea what was going through this, this helicopter pilot's head at the time of this crash? Why, why was, why was she given this, this warning from the faa and then, you know, was, was so wildly out of place?
- [07:56]
Sean Duffy
So what we know is there was an experienced pilot in the, in, in the helicopter and then there was a more junior helicopter pilot who's doing her, what's called a check ride. And the more experienced helicopter pilot, I think, gave indication that they were too far out in the river, not close enough to the bank, and also indicated that they were too high. But again, that was not remedied before the two planes collided. And again, Evita, why on earth do you have the military flying a check mission with fishing goggles around one of the busiest airports in the country at 9 o'clock at night for disaster fly at 2 o'clock in the morning when there's no aircraft coming in and out of dca. But to fly it when we have that many planes in the air is absolutely idiotic. So do we go ahead?
- [08:50]
Evita Duffy
Well, I was gonna say, do we, do we have audio of what was happening inside the helicopter at that time? Is that how you know that the instructor or the more experienced flyer was telling this junior, junior pilot what to do or that they were off course? We have that audio.
- [09:04]
Sean Duffy
We have audio from both aircraft. And so we have recordings at air traffic control. But that is not necessarily what an aircraft might hear. So think on a walkie talkie, if someone's talking to you and you hit your talk button, right? You'll get keyed out. You can't hear what the other person is saying on your walkie talkie. The aircraft worked the same way. So we need to know what they actually heard. And so we could hear what was happening in the cockpit. And yes, the helicopter pilot knew they were too high and they were too far out in the river, the experienced one and told that to the more junior pilot. We also know that right before the crash, the American Airlines pilots saw the helicopter coming in. It was a second and a half probably before impact and two seconds before. And we know that from what happened on, on the voice recorder. But also they tried to take evasive movement and there wasn't enough time. And so. But again, but just one other point, Evita.
- [10:08]
Evita Duffy
Yeah.
- [10:09]
Sean Duffy
Pilots in the airlines have known this is a very dangerous space and there's been near misses in this airspace for years. And that this wasn't fixed is tragic. But one of the benefits that we get from a crash like this, if you can call it a benefit, because it's, I mean, it's so horrible. But you learn lessons. And so we look at what happens in the D.C. airspace and we look elsewhere around the country where we might have similar circumstances and situations and say, well, let's learn the lesson to make sure we take that lesson and apply it to Anchorage, Alaska, or in one of the airports in New York City and make sure we're keeping those aircraft separated. And we just don't rely on pilots to stay away from each other.
- [10:50]
Evita Duffy
We.
- [10:50]
Sean Duffy
When you have aircraft coming in and out of airports.
- [10:53]
Evita Duffy
Okay, yeah. I mean, it is a benefit, again, if you can call it a benefit, that we get to learn from those issues. And obviously you're putting different policies in place. You're not gonna allow this flight path to be this really dangerous flight path to continue unless there are special circumstances, which is a really good idea. I just wanted to clarify. So you said that the pilot, the more experienced pilot obviously warned the lesser experienced pilot who was actually operating this Black Hawk. Was there a lot of time between the crash and this warning, or was this mere seconds that the more experienced pilot was warning this underling?
- [11:35]
Sean Duffy
There was enough time to change course and they didn't. Okay, yeah. And remedy. And then a comment along those lines was made not long before the crash as well. So the experience was giving direction during this check ride. And yeah, it was. You know, I think it's so frustrating because, again, the military made mistakes, the pilots made mistakes. We don't know if this would have happened had that position of air traffic control not been consolidated. And then it begs the question, if they said they saw the landing American Airlines flight coming into Runway 33. Well, obviously they didn't see it. What did they see? What were they looking at? And would it have been different if they didn't have night vision goggles on? And so what we're going to see in the NTSB report, they'll try to recreate the cockpits of both airplanes and position them out in the water near the impact and the moments before and try to get a visual of what they would have seen at that time at night through their windows, you know, with their positioning as they, as they collided. And that can teach us a lot about what they could have seen, what they should have seen, and what they might have thought they were seeing.
- [12:54]
Evita Duffy
Right. Well, that'll be really great to hear, especially for the families to finally have some closure and to know what happened. And I think hearing you now as well, for the rest of, for all the listeners, anybody else who's hearing this, to have it, you know, synthesized in a really cohesive way, because there's just so many questions. And like I said, there's a lot of fear right now around travel. And some people that are actually fueling this fear happen to be the guys at Pod Save America. This is a podcast, a left wing podcast run by former Obama aides and Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, I think his name is. They had a, an entire episode that seemed to be dedicated almost entirely to the FAA and Doge and Dot and how they are making, and you are making air travel just wildly more unsafe. So I want to get your reaction to this. Let's just address this head on. Right here's what they're saying. And what's your response? Let's play that, Mikey.
- [13:54]
Sean Duffy
Then there's the fact that Elon and Doge have cut about 400 jobs from the Federal Aviation Administration only to have Elon tweet on Thursday, quote, there is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so. Is that where we're recruiting now, air traffic controllers? Just who On Twitter? On Twitter, yeah. That's where we are.
- [14:23]
Evita Duffy
So they also say that they're like deathly afraid of flying as well elsewhere in this podcast. What's your reaction to that?
- [14:30]
Sean Duffy
So first off, it was 352 people that were let go at the FAA. And listen, there's a lot of critical safety missions at the faa. Air traffic controllers are one of them. Those, you know, who inspect Boeing airplanes and the manufacturing floor and they inspect pipelines. None of those people were touched. And just for perspective, there are 45,000 employees at the FAA. 45,000 and 352 positions were cut. That's 0.8% of their workforce. This had nothing to do with safety. And again, it opens up an avenue for the left to attack Elon Musk and attack me and the President. But these were the probationary positions that wouldn't have driven any safety mission at the agency. Number one. But you know, number two, to say that air travel isn't safe. It is. It's the safest mode of transportation. But also to blame us. I had been there for less than 24 hours. What I inherited is what Pete Buttigieg left me, right? He gave me this system. And by the way, he should have seen there were errors in the system, there were cracks in the system and he should have fixed those cracks. Instead he didn't. And now I'm going to fix it. I'm going to make it right. I'm going to make it great. We're going to rip out all of the old equipment and put new equipment in. And so to play politics with this, I think is disgusting with Todd Save America, but also others, because again, there are a lot of factors here. But to lay political blame, if we're going to do it it doesn't come at us, doesn't come at Elon Musk or Sean Duffy or Donald Trump. We should probably look to the past administration for what they didn't do. And finally, in regard to travel, again, it's the safest mode of transportation. There's a key point here that again, we do need air traffic controllers. None were fired. We actually hired more air traffic controllers. But if the airspace isn't safe, we don't just send you up in your plane anyway. Your flight will be delayed or your flight will be cancelled. We don't send people up unless it's safe. So if there's a walkout or a strike or someone's sick in a tower somewhere in America and we don't have enough staff, they'll delay the flights. So we only have so many as air traffic can handle, or if you don't have enough, they'll shut down flights. So again, there's redundancies in place that guarantee safe travel. And again, there was the dca, there was Alaska, there was Canada, There was quite a few of them. All were very different and we're learning from those. But I fly all the time and I do it safely. We're safer in a plane than we are in a car by far.
- [17:14]
Evita Duffy
Yeah, well, I mean, you were. I mean, it shouldn't be lost on anyone that you were sworn in for mere hours. And then this crash happened and it really did set a tone of fear across the country that we can't fly anymore. It's terrifying. And really, we should have been more afraid to fly when Pete Buttigieg was in office and we had Joe Biden and that was the environment that led to this crash, not obviously you, who has been there for only a few hours. And we can start to feel safer now that we know that these reforms are coming and that we're actually working to make things better. And you said that Pete Buttigieg actually has recognized some of these issues, but he didn't do much about it. Is that true?
- [17:54]
Sean Duffy
Listen, so just, I'm going to give you a quick, a little history here. The cables that connect our telecoms are old copper wires. We need fiber. Right. That should have been done years ago. We're using radar. It all works. But the newest radar we have is from the 80s, right? There's great new technology and radar. We're gonna upgrade all of. We're gonna redo all of those. The control terminals that air traffic controllers use are old, is all get out. Some of them use floppy disks. They have like, they have headphones on and like plug in jacks that they're moving from one jack to the next. So we are going to rip that stuff out and we're going to rebuild it and we're going to rebuild it quickly. It's going to be the best in the system. And if it takes eight years or 10 years, it'll never get done. We have to do it in two years. Phase one, another year and a half. After that, phase two has to be done. So three and a half years, this has to be completed. And that's where Elon's team has been really helpful, helping us think through how do you do this kind of massive upgrade and do it fast. Southwest did this in their airlines as well. They did it in two years. So the best people who do this work are going to help us make it happen. But again, if there's a breakdown in the system that we use today, you don't fly.
- [19:13]
Evita Duffy
Yeah. Something else that you did that was really, I think, controversial after, after becoming the Secretary of Transportation is you sent out a memo to the dot, to everybody, saying that you want to prioritize families. And among other things, you said that the DOT is now going to give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average when awarding grants. And the reaction to this has been very negative from the political left. Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal called this directive deeply frightening. Michigan Democrat Senator Pat Murray called it disturbingly dystopian. Can you tell me a little bit more about this policy and maybe your reaction to the Democrats?
- [19:56]
Sean Duffy
It's hilarious how they lose their minds. This is one factor that we consider. This is not the end all, be all when we award money, but it's a factor we should consider. And if you think about it, it makes complete sense. We're making investments in different communities. And the communities that are going to grow, that are going to need the investments in infrastructure are the ones where people get married and when they get married, they actually have kids. And that's how communities actually grow, not just in America, but throughout human history. And so we have to look at that and think about it. And if you get married and have kids in communities, we're probably going to need to invest some money in the infrastructure because I bet your community is going to grow. It's a really simple thing, but it goes to something else. Evita. There's an affront to their psychological liberalism that says families are bad, marriage is evil, kids aren't good, family creation is not a societal benefit. So don't invest in that. Sean Duffy. How dare you invest where people have kids and get married. They should celebrate this and go, you know what? It's a national security issue. If you don't have enough kids in a society, your society is going to crumble. It's going to fail. So we should reward families and we should reward those who have children. And listen, I'm beyond the age, but I've done my part. I have nine kids. You're the oldest. I'm the 10th of 11. So my parents did their part. It's a beautiful, wonderful thing. And let's support it in the communities where you do have that population growth coming from family information.
- [21:35]
Evita Duffy
Well, it's really common sense to me. You just laid it out. It's just logical to invest in communities that are objectively growing. They have young families and people, and the population is gonna increase. I find it so funny that the criticism is always like, oh, it's dystopian. Or a lot of times they'll say, oh, it's fascist to want to prioritize family or encourage people to have kids. And it's like this obsession with Hitler, right? Like, if you're pro family, then you must be like a fascist neo Hitler prototype. It's just very bizarre because traditionally, way before World War II, good leaders in Western Christian countries have always prioritized family and having children and being a cohesive community and growing. We can't continue to have a population that is beneath replacement rates. This is civilizational suicide. And then they smear you as a neo fascist for saying it. It's just an absurd thing to say.
- [22:26]
Sean Duffy
But I think it goes to something else. If you hate America, then you hate the things that make it strong. And the things that make America strong or any society strong is having a strong family, a cohesive, strong family in strong communities to put together, make strong countries. That's common knowledge. That's basic. And if you don't like your country, you have to attack the root of that strength, which is the family. And those who support the family and investments in places where they have families, they gotta stab you in the neck because they know that if they can get the family, they get the country. And we keep strong families. We get to keep our country, keep it strong.
- [23:09]
Evita Duffy
And it's so important to have people who are invested in this country leading this country. I always find it so bizarre when you see somebody who's holding public office and they're like really old, in their 60s or their 70s, they have no kids. It's like well, how are you going to make decisions that benefit the future if you don't have little investments in the future? A real difference between the previous admins and this one is a lot of Trump's cabinet has a lot of kids. I pulled up the numbers because I just find it so fascinating. So President Trump has five, JD has three, RFK has seven, Pete has seven, Marco has four, Elon has 12, you have nine, Ratcliffe has four, Doug Burgum, three. Noem, three. Wall Street. Like a lot of these people have above replacement rate families. And this is actually I, strangely enough, not something we're used to seeing in government.
- [24:03]
Sean Duffy
A lot of kids are on. But I can make one quick point. So Elon is not the cabinet. So he.
- [24:08]
Evita Duffy
That's so true. You're right. He's not in the cabinet.
- [24:11]
Sean Duffy
I still have the most. I can't see the cabinet number one number of children to Elon. But listen, it's a group of people who do celebrate families that value their families and who, by the way, take time away from their families to serve their country because they want to make their country great. But they also think the service that they're giving, the time they're giving is going to make America better for their kids and their grandkids. And I think that's the point you're making is really important. Evita, there's something else that drives you in the decisions that you make. You're leaving something off for someone else, which is the people that you love that are in your family. And I think you make better choices when that's what drives you. Not some ideological left wing, progressive, you know, idea that, you know, the environment's gonna collapse if you have, you know, too many kids and which is what your mom and I are called environmental terrorists all the time because we have so many kids. By the way, I wouldn't send any of you back. You've all been great and I think, I think. But you know what, societally, Evita too, and I want Great to hear your point on this. I do think it's important for us to show how great and how fun and how fulfilling families are and you get more fulfilled with the more kids that you have. And mom and I always talk about it's because, listen, little kids can be hard. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of fun and a lot of work. But what is it going to be 10 years or 20 years or 30 years down the road? What is your Christmas or your Thanksgiving table going to look like if you only had one or two kids versus if you had eight or nine or ten kids. You fill up your house and it's so much fun. When you come home from Florida, doing the show and with all your siblings, it's a pretty raucous fun time. You and Mikey have a great time with all the kids. It's really enjoyable and provides great value, I think, not just for parents, but for kids themselves.
- [26:02]
Evita Duffy
We love it. I love coming home so much and seeing everyone that Michael and I could spend money going on a very nice couples vacation together. And we choose to spend that money on plane tickets to New Jersey to see all. All the kids, the whole family. I mean, that's what's the most fun for us. And I do wonder if you are a person who is in their 60s or your 70s and you have a lot of political power in this country. I mean, this isn't everybody, but sometimes I wonder about their priorities. They don't have the joy in their life of a family. They don't see how what's happening now impacts younger generations. They just don't have the same kind of perspective or the same priorities. And again, this doesn't apply to everybody. But I do think it's very strange to have a society led by people who. Who are not very immediately invested in the future in a way that somebody who has children is.
- [26:51]
Sean Duffy
So I just. But that might be a broad stroke of it. I do think there's people who don't have kids that have great hearts and great, great ideas on service. But I think the distortion I think about is the distorted left who comes up with these radical ideas that actually are gonna hurt kids and hurt families. And they don't mind that because they don't have them. Where I do think conservatives that might not have kids, they still value the family. They still value the community and the families in that community and want to have policies that support them where the left want to destroy it. I think there's a big distinction between the childless conservative versus the childless liberal.
- [27:35]
Evita Duffy
Yeah, no, that's a great point. You also. I love that you corrected me about Elon Musk not being in the Cabinet. I meant more like generally in this admin. And you're right, he's not in the Cabinet. And that's a real point of, like, contention right now in the country. People on Pod Save America and elsewhere are saying, well, Elon Musk is running the show, and Elon Musk is calling all the shots. How would you respond to that? I mean, you are the Secretary of Transportation. And you have people saying, well, Elon Musk is running everything. Is Elon Musk running your department?
- [28:07]
Sean Duffy
No, he's not. That'd be a big problem if he did, because Tesla comes to my department, SpaceX comes to my department, the boring company comes through my department. So, yeah, if he ran it, that would be a major problem for the president, for me, for the Congress. But here's what's happening, though, Evita. There's substantial reform that has to happen in the American government. Right. It's fought, it's fat, it's bloated, there's duplicative roles all over agencies and departments. And it's really hard as a new cabinet secretary to see the redundancies and the bloat. Elon and his team, I mean, this is what they do. Like, they're startups and they can see how efficiencies can be driven in any organization. And so as these two things, this startup set of ideas of Elon and his team, and also these cabinet secretaries who understand policy and politics, they're coming together and working together. And there's going to be some bumps in the road as that happens, but as we figure it out, it's going to be a beautiful dance and a beautiful marriage on how the two of us can take the knowledge that each of us have and how we can come together and be smart about how we make this government more efficient. We're $36 trillion in debt. There's way too many government employees and way too many government employees who don't want to serve the president who was elected by the people, which is, by the way, anti democracy. And so you gotta get rid of those people and you gotta streamline your government. And again, if you can streamline it, make it more efficient and serve the president, that means we have more money in our pockets, which means we don't have to borrow as much money. So, again, there's been a bumpy road, for sure. I think every cabinet member would tell you that it's been imperfect, but this is new and we're figuring it out. And again, I think talking to each other and working through the problems, it is gonna put us in a place where we're gonna be able to deliver. For Donald Trump, who has a vision on what he wants to create for the country, and that's what we're doing.
- [30:13]
Evita Duffy
Yeah, listen, I'm optimistic. I think everybody listening is optimistic, too. But I think a lot of people also want to know a little bit about you a little more than just the guy who's telling us about the FAA and reforms that you're making. And Dot, you have a little bit of an unconventional background that not many people may know about. You are a world champion tree climber and a log roller. And if you guys don't know what tree climbing is, it is a northern Wisconsin sport, I guess a sport that originated from lumberjacking. And it's where you actually have these, these spurs connected to your shoes and you literally climb up a tree, a pole, and whoever gets to the top and down first wins. Here it is. Which one are you?
- [31:04]
Sean Duffy
I'm on the right, I think. You have a steel core hemp rope and little spurs in the tree. This is a 90 foot race and so you're climbing straight up into the air. But when you hit the line, it's a free fall back to earth, which you see happens very quickly. And the first one back down is the victor. So what you see there in lumberjack sports, and if you watch ESPN6 at 4:00 in the morning, you might see these sports, right? So this is chopping, sawing, log rolling, tree climbing. And these are all skills that the old time lumberjacks used to use in the woods and they've now come into this modern day sport. And if you think of a lumberjack as a beer drinking, fat, hairy, you know, guy, that is not what this sport is. These are really great athletes who are engaging in these sports. And listen, it's part of, this is Americana. This is part of our history. And so as the lumberjacks came to the northern east and through the center of the country out to the west coast, they used all of these skills. And as technology developed, you have now had these communities were created. Hayward, where I was born and raised and you spent a lot of time, you were actually born in the Hayward area. And we moved on after that. But you go back every summer. This was a logging town and that's how it got its founding. And so this, this big competition happens there every year and people from all over the world and we'll say what? Well, who competes? It's, It's Canada, the U.S. australia and New Zealand is where these sports are big. And people come in from all those places and there's this massive competition. But we're celebrating athletes, but we're celebrating America is what we are in America's great history. And I would tell you that the speed climb is kind of like the bull riding of the rodeo. It's the most exciting sport. It's probably the most dangerous sport. You gotta Be a little crazy to do it because again, it's one thing to go up. It takes strength and speed and stamina. But you gotta have. I'll use the word backbone. Gumption. I could say something else, but I won't. On your podcast, I don't want to get you in trouble, but you gotta have that thing that lets you break loose and freefall back down to earth and get there first.
- [33:14]
Evita Duffy
Yeah. It is truly an Americana sport. It's so fun. And I know how to log roll. I'm not amazing at it. I know how to do it, and it's really difficult. Michael, my husband, tried it and he was like, I'm gonna be better than you. He's pretty confident. And yeah, he was not as good. He couldn't stay up. Cause it's one of those things where if you don't do it when you're really young, you just can't get the hang of it. It's a very unique sport. So you're bringing some lumberjack sports and tradition administration, which is always fun.
- [33:47]
Sean Duffy
So those who don't know Mikey, he's a strong, big young man and he's a good athlete. And so. But. But you're right, Evita. So log rolling, kids, people start like, if you take diving lessons or taekwondo when you're five years old, people go take. These little kids, go take log rolling lessons, and they barely can move the log right, and they figure out how they keep their balance. And it's almost like a tightrope walker has a pole if they hold, and then they look out down the wire and look at the wire as they walk. Log rolling is the same, and you have your arms out for balance and you look down the log at your opponent's feet. And there's only one rule. You can't cross the center line. And you're doing all you can to get your opponent off. And it's a fast paced, tough sport. But as you watch them on the professionals do it, the log is, in essence, flush with the water. And these guys or women are battling out, pushing and pulling this log and running on it, and it almost looks magical. It's like, how can these people stand this log? It is a highly skilled sport, and especially when you get really good at it. You were log rolling when you were little, we moved away and it was harder for you to do it. But you see these young kids and it's a great pastime. When I was growing up, I would go do lumberjack competitions around the country, but then also do exhibitions and So I traveled all over the country, log rolling, chopping, sawing, tree climbing. And I got to see all these fairs and festivals. I got to see the kind of the greatest parts of this country. When I was young, doing these shows that helped me then, you know, have money to go to undergrad and go to law school. And even when I was a lawyer, I was a prosecutor, I'd want to get away and go do a weak lumberjack show. Because there's something for me that was therapeutic. It's just. It's a really cool sport that has a lot of. It's kind of in my genetics, I guess. I don't know.
- [35:36]
Evita Duffy
Yeah, it is. And I think Michael's gonna look up. Are you gonna look up some log rollings? People can see what this is about. Mikey, he's gonna do that. But I also wanted to mention to everybody that I don't know if any transportation secretary has had this, but you do have. You did have a CDL because you were a truck driver for a long time. So Transportation secretary, former truck driver, which is pretty interesting.
- [35:55]
Sean Duffy
As I was going through the confirmation hearing, I kept telling everybody that I could fit it in six ways to Sunday. I did. Like, I got my cdl. I'm a CDL holder. So, yeah, I had to have a cdl, a commercial driver's license, to drive our lumberjack trucks around the country. There were, you know, long trailers, and then we'd have these trees that would. The butts would be on the back end. Then we'd have a rack where the trees would shoot up over the top of the trucks. And so we needed to have commercial driver's license to drive these vehicles. And I've had it for 30 years. And when I got a New Jersey driver's license, I sat so long in the dmv, and they said, you can come back in three days and let you keep your. Your CDL license, but you need some other. You have to get a physical. And I'm like, I am not coming back here. You can take my cdl. I've always had it because I'm like, if something ever happens in life and I can't find a job, I'm like, I can always go back. I've got my cdl. I can be a truck driver. And so I gave it up, though.
- [36:50]
Evita Duffy
Oh, we get. We got a. We got a video of log rolling.
- [36:53]
Sean Duffy
This is someone trying to do it. That's.
- [36:55]
Evita Duffy
That. Can't do it.
- [36:57]
Sean Duffy
Can't do it.
- [36:58]
Evita Duffy
There's a little girl. That's great. At it. I actually know her. She's a. She's a. She's a youth world champion log roller. And so, yeah, she's real good.
- [37:06]
Sean Duffy
And just see what happens is, as you hit certain time limits, the diameter of the log gets smaller. So if you start at 15 inches diameter and then it goes to 12 inches, 13 inches, 12 inches. And the smaller, the smaller the diameter, the smaller the log, which means it's faster and it floats lower in the water. So it's much more difficult. And anyway, it is a great sport. And by the way, if you haven't seen it last weekend, usually it's the last weekend in July in Hayward, Wisconsin, is the Lumberjack World Championships. Go check it out. You'll be thoroughly entertained. There's great food up there. There's beautiful lakes. You can go fishing in the summer. I get offered to go all kinds of places, and I turn them all down because I think this is the best place on earth that you could be in July or August all over the country, but all over the world. It's beautiful.
- [38:00]
Evita Duffy
I second that. It's amazing. Definitely something to check out for everybody who's listening. And I want to get your reaction to this, dad, because speaking of logrolling, one of the things that you've done is you integrated your past as a lumberjack sports world champion into your ads for Congress in really kind of creative ways. And you were somebody who was always using social media and culture to captivate people, to get them excited about what you were doing, to have some name recognition. This is what you did when you were a member of Congress. I have. Well, before, before I get, before I tell. Before I tell everybody what you did, I want to play for you a video of, I think Democrats really failing to do what you've sort of successfully done your whole career. What I think President Trump has successful done as he's brought in all of these experts in media, these expert communicators into this admin. People who are loyal to him, who want to really have the mandate, but also who are really good at communicating what they believe and what they're doing. I'm talking about Pete Hexseth and you and Dan Bongino and people that said this is a bad thing. But if you look at the way Democrats are messaging, especially to young people right now, it is pretty bad. This is a video from representative Rosa. Rosa DeLauro. And here she's explaining Democratic goals in Congress. And she's using Gen Z slang, I think, to message to Gen Zers, to seem Relevant and kind of funny. I don't think it played over that way, but you tell me. Let's play that video.
- [39:31]
Sean Duffy
Yo.
- [39:32]
C
This is the ranking rizzler on appropriations serving Connecticut's third district. It's time to enter your dark academia Congress era. All right, besties, House appropriation is the money moves in Congress. We are not chasing the bag. We are the bag. Democrats are making life smoother for government funding. It's giving. It's giving it so Sigma main character energy. But Republicans project 2025 is mad sus eliminating the Department of Education negative borrower points. Basically the biggest fandom tax on the environment, on your education and your rights. Big L posting it online, buddy. Democrats understood the assignment, but go off, see how I keep you informed. Very cutesy, very demure.
- [40:27]
Evita Duffy
It is literally the meme, how do you do, fellow kids? That's what we're looking at right now. And I want to know, dad, first of all, did you understand anything that she said in that video?
- [40:37]
Sean Duffy
No.
- [40:38]
Evita Duffy
No. See, because. Well, I unfortunately understood it and it was very, very cringe. But I wanna know, did you think that was cringe or what did you think of that video?
- [40:47]
Sean Duffy
Okay, hold on, let me go second. You go first.
- [40:50]
Evita Duffy
Well, I think that it was. There's a difference between messaging to young people and in doing it in a creative and interesting way and trying to be like young people and it coming off as posturing and like, this is not what Donald Trump does. Donald Trump understands media and he messages to them and he's very raw and authentic. There's something very contrived and pandering about this that I found to be disingenuous and ultimately cringe. That is how I would describe it. It's just cringe. It is the meme. It is, how do you do, fellow kids? And it's funny because this used to be Republicans. Republicans used to be the ones who were super uncool. Like I'm thinking John McCain, Mitt Romney, George Bush. Nobody's saying those guys were really cool. And suddenly now it's Democrats who we're looking at as very cringe and unable to reach and I don't know, have a, have, have a relationship with young people in any kind of meaningful way.
- [41:53]
Sean Duffy
Okay, listen, so I disagree. I looked at the video and there's one effort that you can try to be cool and use Gen Z language, but if you get to a certain age, like, you're not cool, right? And it seems like she was using the language and it was obviously a joke. She obviously it Was. She's got her. She's older and she's got hair. And it's like, of course she's using their language. And it's. She's a bit of a spoof. And she's in on the joke. I thought I had an old colleague who's now retired from Wisconsin. His name was Jim Sensenbrenner. And again, he was old. And his staff would take pictures of him at his typewriter typing. And he was like, I'm writing up a tweet would be the caption on the video of Jim on his old. He had like. It was an old school typewriter where you. You guys don't even know what this is. You're young viewers, but you hit the side and you go, whoop. You gotta push the bar back over and start typing the next line. So I do think there are things that could be. That can be endearing and engaging. And she's old enough that I thought it was okay.
- [42:59]
Evita Duffy
You did.
- [43:00]
Sean Duffy
However. I did, but you make a different point. So on the cool side, that conservatism has become cool again. And cool people who really weren't Republicans have become Republicans because Democrats have gotten so crazy. Even the. Joe Rogan is a liberal and he's endorsing Donald Trump. Cause he's like, I can't vote for this crazy. This is so nuts. I can't do it. Elon Musk was a liberal, a Democrat, and after they tried to transition his kid and crazy policies, he's like, you know what? No, I'm gonna go with Trump. I'm go with these guys that are far more common sense. I think you're seeing a lot of traditional Democrats look at what's happened to the Democrat Party. And they're like, they don't represent me anymore. And I'm gonna lend my voice to a more common sense movement, which is Republicans. And then with that, oh, there it is. Justin censored Ben. I sent it out, a tweet. He's a wonderful friend of mine. But what I was going to tell you is that with them comes some coolness and some cachet, right? You get that when you bring in cool people. And again, Democrats, I think they're really. They don't know how to respond to this new Republican cool. Because to your point, we've never been cool. Like, we're like, culture always crushes us, culture hates us, and now we're part of culture that Donald Trump dances. And again, it's maybe not the sexiest, greatest dance out there, but he's Got the fists out and he's kind of moving his hips and just shaking to ymca and it's so authentic. And it's so. He's not trying to be anything but Donald Trump at 78 years old, doing a little shake out there. Authentically, Donald and that authentic nature. All of a sudden, football, football stars, football. You know, touchdowns are scored and, you know, in the end zone, it's the Donald Trump, they're doing it, too. Taking off all over the country because it was authentic. So Rosa DeLauro, she'll never take off. I can laugh with her, but do I think she's cool? No. But Donald Trump, because he's so authentic and so cool himself, it transcends culture. And when Republicans play in culture, the left, I mean, they don't know how to deal with it because they're like, you can't play in culture. We own the culture. You can't play in this space. And now that we are and doing it well, and they're failing at it, it's this unique dynamic shift that's happening in America.
- [45:37]
Evita Duffy
Well, one person that I think is embracing the cool, the newfound cool that the right has is J.D. vance. He has all these memes right now about him. I don't know if you've seen this on XD, but people are putting JD Vance's face on everything. Like on all 50 presidents. It'll be like just JD Vance. It'll be just like any sort of meme, any character from a movie, and they'll just put his face on there. I don't even know how it started. It's gotten insane. And JD Vance today, or actually well over the weekend, posted a photo of himself in one of these memes. Like, he's a part of it. He's catching onto it. And he's not just going to ignore this viral phenomenon. He's actually going to kind of tip his hat to it, which is a really new thing, I think, that we've seen on the right. This is not how we normally engage with the public. You are somebody who has been, like I said, doing this for a long time. Yes. This is the one that J.D. vance posted. Yeah, he posted this of himself. So it's pretty good. Leonardo DiCaprio is the original in that meme that people post all the time. But you've done this, too. You've been kind of somebody engaged in the culture and trying to message to young people in a really interesting way. One way you did it was with your viral selfie video. Now, you guys, before I Play this. I'm gonna warn you that it is a little dated. This is a little older. It's probably not cool now, but this was really cool at the time.
- [47:01]
Sean Duffy
All right, I'm on the way to a town hall, but first, let me take a self.
- [47:26]
Evita Duffy
We're good with that. Mikey. Whose idea was that?
- [47:29]
Sean Duffy
So it was my staff's idea, but what they recognized was, again, so I was just. I was on the campaign trail, and I would take selfies with everybody because I didn't have anybody. There was no one on my team.
- [47:39]
Evita Duffy
Wait, can I just say, you were also a vlogger. You were vlogging all the time. Before vlogging was cool.
- [47:46]
Sean Duffy
I was taking pictures with people, and then selfies became a thing. And so when the song came out, let me take a selfie, it was easy. They're like, why don't we put together a montage of all your selfies? Which we did. And I had all these selfies that I had taken over my term in Congress and before that. And so they just did this. Did this compilation. And. But it was very authentic to me. And when I first ran again, you got to go back. This is what, 2009. And so Facebook was becoming a thing. And did that anyone. Did Twitter exist at that time? But it wasn't really a thing yet. And so I would just be like, hey, I pulled my camera. But it wasn't. It was not my iPhone that's cracked right now, but it was like, I had, like, actual. A video camera, and I would do these videos of, like, I'm in my car. I'm going here, and I'm at this fair. I'm milking this cow, like, walking through dairy barns. I'm northern Wisconsin, by the way. That's why that's a. That's a thing. And then I'd have to transfer them to my computer, and I'd post them. And people loved it, and no one was really doing it. And so we were. We were innovative at the time. And it was. I think what it does is it lets people come in and share the experience of a campaign with the candidate, and they get to know you better through the videos that you post and the places that you go and the people that you meet. And I was doing it before. It was really popular, and it was. By the way, you've seen our old videos. Evita. I did this when Evita was a baby. When I met your mom, I would just get my old video camera, and I just would walk around and talk about what was going on in the world and what we're doing and where we're going. Like, I've just done this my whole life. So when I ran for office, it was easy to put a camera up and talk about what I was doing. And again, people loved it. And people love it now as it's grown, because it is. It's letting people connect with you in a different way. And I think that's really powerful. And going back to the point on culture, I want to get your take on this too. I don't know if we're able to play differently because we've changed and we're better at it, or it's that we now have access to a platform that'll let us be ourselves. And that's Twitter. And you know that Elon has opened up Twitter for all of us, or X I should say. I think it's given us a fair shake at sharing our stories, our messages, our videos, our thoughts, you know, laughing at liberals, letting liberals laugh at us. It really is the marketplace of ideas, which is what we want. And I think that's a really good thing. And in that space, we've done really well. But we were suppressed for so long. Was it that we were so bad, or is that we were never able to have a fair shake at culture because we were never allowed into culture? Elon with X has allowed us in and we've done pretty well.
- [50:28]
Evita Duffy
I think that X has definitely made the vibe shift much more possible. Although I wonder. I think it might have already. I think it might have happened even without X, because people are responding so negatively to the darkness of Obama wokeism and safe spaces and the massive just race rioting and the COVID hysteria. There were so many things that were so oppressive and negative that people are responding to. And in a very based, cool way that's very positive for the political right. And you can see it in young people that young men have gone 30 points up for President Trump compared to 2020. I mean, this is like a massive vibe shift in young men, also young women to a lesser extent. What's amazing about EXO that I will say is that we've really democratized information on there and the algorithms seem to be much more fair. And you are responding to that in a really positive way. And one example of this is Hillary Clinton came at you a while ago. She was saying you're firing kind of similar to Pod Save America, right? She came after you for this air traffic controller issue and you had a great response. And I wonder if in the past People might not have responded directly on X to this, but you did that. You had the right instinct there and X gave you the ability to do it. And not only to do it, but to have the reach so that everybody saw you respond to her and address her criticisms. Can we actually pull those up, Mikey? Do we have that? We're working on it, but I don't know. I don't know. I mean, what is your thoughts on Hillary Clinton just coming at you directly?
- [52:00]
Sean Duffy
Well, there's two things. One, I had the ability because of X and I wasn't censored to respond to her and not only match her reach of her attack on me, but blow her reach out of the water and get, I think, two or three times the reach that she ratioed her.
- [52:15]
Evita Duffy
Let's throw them up there, Mikey.
- [52:17]
Sean Duffy
Yeah, so this is her ridiculous attack on us. But I also think what happened was I went back at her hard in my response to her attack. And I think most of the secretaries wouldn't have felt comfortable doing that, but I felt comfortable because Donald Trump communicates in an honest way. He's not afraid to punch back when people hit him. And that gives me the authority and the opportunity to punch back at Hillary really hard as well. Donald Trump has completely shaken up the way that Republicans respond to left wing media, how they respond to attacks before they would just take them. Donald Trump has taught Republicans, you don't have to take the attack, you don't have to take the punch. You can actually punch back with truth and you'll actually win. But I find interesting in all of this, again, we're playing in maybe Gen Z space, but you mentioned what happened in this last election with men, and I think it's really remarkable. But liberals have had the idea that they're gonna have a lock on American politics. Just give us a couple extra elections and this thing is all gonna be ours. Because we have the youth vote and we have the minority vote. And I think you saw in this election that philosophy may be flawed because the youth vote trended significantly toward Donald Trump and Republicans and the minority vote, specifically Hispanics, but also black men. The shift was remarkable to Republicans away from Democrats. And this idea that the young and the minority is going to be the coalition that drives the Democrat Party is flawed because it's not about your age or your race. It's about good ideas. And if your ideas suck like Democrats ideas suck. Well, guess what? They want to go with a set of ideas that are normal, that are going to help their families and their lives and Their pocketbooks and their jobs and their opportunities. That's what they want. And that's what we saw in this election. It was not about a party. It was about a guy that made a different promise to them. And they remembered back to the first four years and all the crap that the left gave Donald Trump. They said, you know what? But he still delivered for us. And by the way, he didn't make girls shower with boys. What a beautiful thing. Pretty simple.
- [54:35]
Evita Duffy
Yeah, it's, it is so true. I have, I have the Hillary Clinton. Just so you guys know what we're talking about. You had Michael threw up one of them, but this is the second one. She says U.S. airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes. Then MAGA fired FFA FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs. Now they have two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22 year olds fix things fast. And then you said very smartly, oh, no, I don't know if I have it, guys. I'm working on my computer here.
- [55:09]
Sean Duffy
Anyway, it was a good response. I'm at secduffy on Axe if you want to go check out my spat with Hillary. But it's nice to be able to respond and punch back. And again, I do think Evita, and you can tell me if I'm right or wrong. Young Americans actually like the debate. They actually enjoy the fight because they're getting, you know, it goes back to Donald Trump's dance. You're having an authentic debate on X. Two different sides, really, different points of views, attacks, responses, counterattacks. And that really is, again, we're not in the streets debating any longer. We're doing it on social media. But that is what we really want as a country. Debate the ideas, have the free flow of a conversation. Let the best ideas rise to the top. And X is letting that happen. And then it plays out in elections, which was pretty good for Republicans last November.
- [56:00]
Evita Duffy
So true. Well, I'm really excited for what you're going to do as the Secretary of Transportation. I think everybody else is, too. I hope this makes people who are listening feel a little more at ease with flying and travel in general, that there are reforms coming, that things are going to get better, that the precedent that was set in your first few hours is not going to be the standard. And so where can people go, dad, to get updates on everything? Department of Transportation. Where can they go to follow you and just stay in communication? Again, this is the whole point of, I think, President Trump picking expert communicators. In this administration is you are constantly trying to message the people and keep them in the conversation.
- [56:41]
Sean Duffy
Can I even make one? Yeah. So I'm eckduffy on Twitter. If you want FAA information, you go to FAA News on X as well. But here's the just there's been a number of different incidents in air travel, and all of them are unique, all of them are different, and none of them relate back to a cracking, eroded system. It's made us look at the system that has to be completely gutted and remade. That's true, but this is not because a system is broken. It's because other factors came into play. And once you had dca, we even had the airplane of Motley Crue that had, I think it was a landing gear malfunction. There's a heightened attention on anything with aviation right now, where a year ago, a lot of things were happening, but people weren't paying attention the way they are now. So they think there's more incidents, but there's not. And so I'll just tell your viewers and listeners, I'm on it. We have a great plan. The president is 100% on board, and we are going to fix what the last administration didn't fix. We're going to do it fast. The Congress is going to give us the money and we are going to make air travel great, making sure less delays, less cancellations. And if I can make one less pitch, Evita, People might not think we're the greatest, coolest, sexiest department, but we are. Listen, we appreciate we affect people's lives in a way that other departments don't like. If transportation doesn't work, congestion on roads or in the air and delays, you sit in traffic that takes you away from your family, takes you away from the people that you love. And when this works well, you get more time in the places that you want to be and with the people you want to be with. And so we're doing that part of it on the infrastructure of transportation. But also we have drones, we have evitals or Ubers in the air, autonomous vehicles. So the Internet and the iPhone were revolutionary. But the next revolution I think that's going to happen in technology is going to be with regard to travel and how we move people and products. And it's going to come from autonomous, it's going to come from drones. It's going to come from these autonomous drones that carry people. And what's important is that we beat China. And to beat China, we have to have rules in place that allow innovators to innovate in America and then incentivize them to build on that innovation. The products that we use build it in America. So we have American jobs, so we can't source this to China. We can't let them control the technology. So we're setting up rules now that are going to let the companies that innovate not do it over in Dubai or some other. In China or Vietnam. We want them to do it here, and we're going to do our work to make sure they can do it here. And then when they get that technology, they stay here. So it's a very exciting department. A lot of important things going on. So. And I'm just. By the way, I'm just. I'm grateful Donald Trump gave me the opportunity. You were supportive of Vita. Mom was supportive. The kids have been supportive. And because the family does serve when you do this. And again, I think I. I work 14 hours a day, many days, and I couldn't ask for a better job or a better department to serve in government and to be part of this administration's cabinet that I get to serve with. I think he's not the greatest president of our lifetime. He is one of the greats that we've ever had that's going to truly fix this country and put us on a different course, a different direction. And that I get to serve with him and get to see him in action is the most amazing honor and thrill. It's exciting. And again, this is. We're six weeks in, and this is all that's happened. I told him one day, I'm like, Mr. President, you can retire after two months and just go. Because you're gonna get it all done in two months. It's gonna be over. Maybe you have to slow down. He's like, I'm not slowing down. And I think he thinks about every week, every day. He's limited in time, and he's maximizing every single moment to fix this country, to make sure that we don't have to deal with the crap that's been going on for the last several decades. We get a fresh start and we get a. We get to continue to lead the world. We're not going to cede the future to China or anyone else. It's going to be ours, and Donald Trump is going to make sure of it with his presidency, along with the help of his cabinet and other great minds.
- [61:10]
Evita Duffy
Amen to that. And, dad, I'm very proud of you. I think mom is. And the entire family is as well. We all knew that you could do this. We all believe in you. And so I'm really grateful that you joined me on Early Edition. I think the viewers are going to be really excited about this, too. But you guys drop a comment, you let me know what you thought of this episode. Also, make sure to go follow my dad. Eckduffy. Is that right?
- [61:32]
Sean Duffy
On X. Psychduffy on X. Check me out.
- [61:35]
Evita Duffy
All right, perfect. You guys, thank you so much for being here. I'll see you all tomorrow.