Actress Susan Sarandon expressed contempt for President Joe Biden's U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for his inability to deal with the travel disaster that occurred during the holiday season.
“I guess being smart doesn't necessarily make you practical,” Sarandon tweeted about Buttigieg on Wednesday.
The Thelma & Louise star responded to tweets from reporter David Sirota, who wrote, “Documents show that before this week's travel disaster, state officials of both parties warned @SecretaryPete about the mess, begging him to crack down.”
Sirota added that Buttigieg “responded by going on national TV to insist travel ‘is going to get better by the holidays.'”
Three months ago, the transportation secretary informed late-night comedian James Corden that airline travel would improve during the holiday season.
Buttigieg has reportedly refused to comply with state attorneys general's frequent demands to ensure the safety of passengers and hold airlines accountable for flight cancellations in the weeks preceding the ongoing holiday-travel saga.
Despite these demands, this year's Christmas travel season was plagued by thousands of flight cancellations, mostly by Southwest Airlines, which failed to recover its feet following a major winter storm that affected much of the United States.
At the time of writing, travelers who were depending on Southwest Airlines to get them home were still mostly stranded. This was still occurring 24 hours after Buttigieg publicly criticized the airline as well as warned the company to perform better, or else.
Disgruntled Southwest passengers were forced to look for alternative airlines or rent cars to get to their destinations. Southwest's CEO has said that it could be next week before the airline's flight woes are resolved.
The airline continues to cancel thousands of flights each day; it has canceled almost 5,000 flights within two days alone in an effort to recuperate from what it describes as “operational challenges.”
