Transportation Secretary Turns The Tables On CBS Reporter Who Questioned His Consultation With Elon Musk

Despite his left-leaning stance on various issues, assets in the space exploration industry, and investment in electric vehicles, billionaire Elon Musk has become a pariah among Democratic Party insiders over the past several years.

That ostracism has only grown more acute since Musk took the helm at the Department of Government Efficiency where he has been working with multiple federal agencies to root out inefficiencies, waste, and fraud.

During a CBS News interview this week, recently confirmed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy fielded a query on the topic of his recent consultation with Musk.

While Kris Van Cleave might have believed he had a “gotcha” question, Duffy was able to volley the issue effectively, as the Daily Caller reported:

“Why wouldn’t I ask Elon Musk? Why wouldn’t I ask some of the best minds in the world to come in and offer us advice on how they think we can improve the system?” an incredulous Duffy said, with Van Cleave asking, “How do you avoid the potential conflicts of interest with Elon Musk?”

“I don’t want to see conflicts of interest, so he was talking to air traffic controllers, didn’t plug into the system, but looked at the terminals that they use, the technology that they use, asked them, had a back and forth about what works well for you, what doesn’t work well,” Duffy responded.

President Donald Trump named Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chairs of DOGE on Nov. 12. Ramaswamy stepped down as co-chairman of DOGE on Jan. 20 and later filed paperwork to run for governor of Ohio.

Musk founded The Boring Company, which digs tunnels, was a co-founder of OpenAI, purchased Twitter and rebranded it as X while launching XAI. Musk also founded Neuralink, which designs chips and software to help people with brain and spinal injuries. SpaceX was the first private company to launch astronauts into space, and Musk has repeatedly stated his ambitions to colonize Mars.

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Despite claims in the media by Democrats, no air traffic controllers have been fired by the Trump administration.

The absurdity of leftists who have attempted to blame President Donald Trump for transportation-related incidents during his first month in office was not lost on a number of commentators:

CBS's Gayle King tries to blame Trump for the plane crashes, is debunked by Delta's CEO pic.twitter.com/P9m5SxYKOQ

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 19, 2025

>Biden becomes President
>dozens of plane crashes
>Nobody cares

>Trump becomes president
>Dramatically fewer plane crashes
>Libs blame this on Trump https://t.co/4iVUZQhUpk pic.twitter.com/ZSW1QeEX05

— Reddit Lies (@reddit_lies) February 19, 2025

NBC News attempts to blame President Trump for Toronto plane crash due to FAA cuts.

FACT CHECK: This happened under Canadian authority under Canadian air traffic control. pic.twitter.com/EeKoe7OBcO

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 17, 2025

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had some tough words for Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over what he had to say about one recent jet crash, as the New York Post reported:

Leavitt ripped the Democratic lawmaker just hours after he appeared to link Monday’s disastrous Delta landing to the president’s recent cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration’s workforce.

“It’s incredibly irresponsible for Chuck Schumer to say such a thing when the investigation is still underway,” the press sec told Fox News’ “America Reports” late Tuesday.

“This crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air traffic controllers overseeing it,” she said.

Schumer had fired off a slew of tweets referencing the FAA cuts as he reacted to news of the Delta plane bursting into flames and tipping over as it touched down at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday.

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“I’m thankful that everyone in the flight incident in Toronto that took off from Minneapolis is safe, but we keep seeing these incidents day after day. Meanwhile, Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA —including safety specialists — and making our skies less and less safe,” Schumer wrote.

Here’s a clip exploring the difference in approach between the Trump administration’s Transportation Department and that of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: