Was scandal-hit Rep. George Santos among those to encounter flight problems in recent days?
Serial liar Santos took to Twitter yesterday to take aim at United Airlines. At the same time, he told the company not to try and shift the blame to the Department of Transportation and Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“It’s always incredible how United is always the airline with most issues and is the first to differ [sic] the blame to @PeteButtigieg & the DOT,” Santos said.
“The FAA & DOT are not to blame for their failure to service their customers. Scott Kirby needs to reevaluate his role as @united CEO.”
United canceled numerous flights in the US over the last week. CEO Kirby even issued an apology after it emerged he’d chartered a private jet for his own travel out of New York, following the cancellations.
Other MAGA Republicans have used airline disruption as a stick with which to beat Buttigieg. Santos clearly thinks the blame for United’s problems lies firmly within the organization.
Online, some wondered if this was a rare display of LGBTQ+ solidarity on Santos’ part.
Over the weekend, Santos and Buttigieg found themselves in rare agreement over something else: The awful homophobia displayed in a recent campaign ad from Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
This is not the first time Santos has criticized an airline. He has previously posted several tweets criticizing Delta for its customer service.
George Santos’ legal woes
On Friday (June 30th), Santos made his second, brief appearance in court. He faces 13 federal charges relating to wire fraud and money laundering. He denies any wrongdoing.
The five-minute Long Island courthouse hearing focussed mainly on the case schedule. The prosecution team presented the Santos defense team with 80,000 pages of documents. Santos’ team asked for time to read it all. The judge set the next court appearance for September 7, when Congress is in recess.
After his first court appearance in May, Santos was released on bail of $500,000. It later emerged his father and an aunt guaranteed the money. A release order signed by a judge stipulates that Santos cannot leave New York City, Long Island, or Washington, D.C. “except for travel to and from court.” He can request permission through the court to travel outside those areas.
Online, Santos quickly turned off replies to his tweet to United as many people began to point out his grammatical errors (“differ” rather than “defer”) and demand he resign.
Others joked that if he is heading off anywhere, he’s got plenty of vacation reading material to enjoy.
Related*
George Santos blasts Ron DeSantis’ latest campaign ad: “The gayest crap I’ve ever seen”
And Pete Buttigieg had a few choice words about it, too.
abfab
The minute this idiot enters the airport you can just imagine how fast he turns on his Karen mode. If I saw him at my same gate I’d ask for a later flight. This man is filled with sour grapes.
Bengali
I’d tell Georgie to meet me in the bathroom stall. Then i’d lock him in. I won’t inconvenience my travel for this very round pip squeak. He’s trying to bait people, mostly of lgbtq+ community by saying, “look at me. I’m standing up for our LGBTQ+ head of DOT. Vote for me.”
abfab
Or in his own clever little, manipulative way, he’s trying to flirt with Pete.
GayEGO
Oh my! Georgia Santos wants to meet with Pete!
Pietro D
That will happen when it’s a frosty Tuesday in Hell.
mildredspierce
Take a lesson Georgie. You are nowhere near Pete’s orbit and whatever diversion you are trying to create is lost on your total lack of credibility.
abfab
…and those dorky frames and his floppy ears and that fake smile. She reminds me of Leona Helmsley.
abfab
And Pete…still so handsome. Hey, the NYT just did a 36 hours in Malta and it’s a true, Gay Mecca, now, and historically.
decrans
Pete Buttigieg is the perfect example of a mediocre white man ‘failing up’ while brainless liberals clap along like circus seals. He still hasn’t addressed “bomb trains” transporting liquefied natural gas and crude oil by rail. Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R) and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D) have both called on federal officials to consider expanding the definition of “high-hazard flammable trains.” Meanwhile, this mediocre white man is too busy engaging in the press circuit to address this serious issue.
Sheppard87
I don’t disagree that Secretary Buttigieg has sort of failed up to his position. Even though I like him, I was confused at his placement as SOT. But the incidents you are talking about only happened because regulations were made more lax under Trump, including safety regulations and several standards for what could be transported via rail. A lot of those deregulations and changes were made in partnership with the railroad industry and aren’t easy to walk back, which is something that Secretary Buttigieg and President Biden have talked about in the past.
dbmcvey
Considering you support a party that is almost completely populated by mediocre white people that’s quite a statement.
decrans
That’s the difference between us. I can admit that.
dbmcvey
Good. But you still support dangerous, anti-gay politicians who are truly stupid. Pete is better than all the Republicans in congress.
decrans
Better than Nancy Mace? I beg to differ. He’s a small-town mayor who could barely fix potholes in his hometown. Because he’s gay and a Biden bootlicker, he has a job.
dbmcvey
Nancy Mace is just another feckless Republican. She’s anti-gay and pretends to be pro-choice but just like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski she’ll sell out women’s rights along with the rest of her party.
decrans
Is it kinda similar to how Pete Buttigieg is selling out the queer community?
“But one of his defining features is his heterosexuality. It’s offering us the promise that our first gay first family might actually be a straight one,” Greta LaFleur, a professor of American studies at Yale, wrote.
Adiel Pollydore, told the Guardian that she decided to protest in part because “Pete Buttigieg represents a very small percentage of the experiences of queer and trans people in this country, being white and being cisgender and being a man, being someone who is highly educated. We know queer and trans folks of color, especially black queer and trans folks, live at the intersection of so many systems of oppression in this country.”
Unlike those who are noticeably “queer,” Gessen argues, Pete Buttigieg has always appeared relatively normal (he can “pass” as a straight man) and therefore could “choose the circumstances and timing of his coming out.” This experience, in turn, led him to adopt a political platform that — in Gessen’s telling — is “profoundly, essentially conservative.” She concludes that Pete Buttigieg’s life experience and ideological commitments make him “a straight politician in a gay man’s body.”
(THAT LAST ONE SOUNDS SIMILAR TO YOU, DAVE MATTHEWS!)
DBMC
Oh Jarod. You fool. It’s not Pete who’s doing that it’s clueless reporters. You find anything that Pete has done to sell out the gay community that doesn’t come from a reporter’s opinion. The man is married to a very public man with whom he has a child. Also, conservative pundits (who you probably love) keep heaping piles of misogyny and homophobia on his husband.
You, who have completely sold out the gay community, should not be throwing stones at Pete.
decrans
Oh, Dave Matthews. You feckless hypocrite in the Meghan McCain vein. You want to bloviate about the downtrodden trans. Here you have POC trans people telling you about Pete Buttigeg’s willful dismissal of people of color killed under his purview as mayor. You gasp so much oxygen talking about this demographic. When they bring up valid concerns, your privileged a$$ pivots and deflects like KellyAnne Conway.
dbmcvey
So Jared, you have no response. You now have to realize that this is the stupid journalists and not Pete so you try to grasp at straws, like usual.
Now, why don’t you, instead of trying to prop up anti-gay politicians and condemn trans people to homelessness and joblessness find something to do that doesn’t hurt anyone.
decrans
Why don’t you actually do something about trans homelessness yourself as opposed to mindless virtue signaling and supporting conservative white candidates that remind you of yourself?
dbmcvey
I do try to help them.
You support anti-LGBT politicians who want to make it harder on them and who will guarantee more of them are kicked out of their homes by their bigoted parents.
dbmcvey
Also, I don’t support conservative white politicians–that’s you Jared. You’re the one who supports conservative white politicians. What a liar you are.
decrans
You support them with vague generalizations while your state teems with homeless trans people. Get off your A$$, Dave Matthews. Get off your privileged A$$.
decrans
“Mayor Pete’s strongest support, by contrast, came from moderate and conservative voters, older voters, and voters whose yearly household income is $100,000 or higher.”
Oops!
dbmcvey
Jared, you are such a liar. You support Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott who are trying to take kids away from parents if they want the kid to get mental health care, so parents have to flee the states. You support laws that will prevent trans people from getting healthcare. You and your “roommate who’s the president of Latinos for Trump.” You’re such a gaslighting hypocrite.
dbmcvey
Also, Jared, interesting. The founders of “Latinos for Trump” are Proud Boys aka traitors aka NAZIS. Doesn’t speak well of your “roommate.”
decrans
Here’s another inconvenient fact for you. Buttigieg’s support among Black voters stayed around zero percent for his 2020 campaign. They even came up with a nickname for him: Mayo Pete. You’re just like the conservatives, Dave. You love those white conservative candidates who think EXACTLY like you do. And yeah, my roommate is voting for Trump. Why? Because she’s fed up with Biden’s policies toward the working-class. And Gavin Newsom’s policies. This was another problem the Dems had in 2016. Instead of crying and blubbering about it, you might wanna get off your rear for 2024, babe.
decrans
“Martin Luther King might press him to explain why black voters should trust and support him given his record of siding with racist South Bend police officers and against their African-American chief. King might want him to explain his willingness to gentrify predominantly black neighborhoods in the name of “beautification,” or why his campaign promoted a fraudulent endorsement list of African-American leaders in South Carolina. And King might demand an answer for the lack of diversity in his city leadership and on his campaign.”
decrans
Do I support their viewpoints since Democrats aren’t willing the address the inequities of our healthcare system and then place children into the said system who cannot consent or conceptualize the inequities? Yeah, I do. Will I be voting for them? No. As I mentioned multiple times over, I will be voting for Cornel West, the No Labels Party, or not voting. Will I take their money for paid political canvassing? Yeah, I will. This is America.
dbmcvey
Such hypocrisy. Dems address the inadequacies of the healthcare system, Republicans claim we have the best healthcare system in the world. Everything Jarod says is a lie including “an” and “the.”