Rachel Maddow blasted Donald Trump’s first choice to lead the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday, saying the man who is being considered by the president – John Dunkin, his personal pilot – oversaw more than one bad incident during the campaign, including a crash landing with then-Gov. Mike Pence onboard.
In a brutal segment, Maddow pointed out not only that Dunkin was leading the Trump campaign air fleet at the time of that scary incident, but one of the other pilots he hired during the campaign turned out to be an alleged violent felon.
Video:
Maddow skewered Dunkin:
It was a running joke, dark humor among the press corps, that none of them would survive covering Mike Mence because the landings were so terrible. They had so many hard landings and bouncing off the runways. It didn’t feel safe to anybody who was on that plane. … Well, it turns out that all happened at the end of October. The month before, the month before that crash landing at Laguardia, that same charter company running the Mike Pence flights for the Truump campaign, they had another trip through the headlines. In September 2016 The Guardian newspaper reported the previous pilot they’d had flying the Mike Pence plane, he was wanted on violent felony charges … This particular guy was currently facing violent felony charges for … allegedly running over a co-worker with his car three times, putting the guy in the hospital and seriously injuring him. … And that was the month before — they found out about that because of the press. They had to fire that guy the month before they ended up with a crew that overshot the runway, chewed up the asphalt, shut down Laguardia airport. Man, I mean, whoever was running the Trump presidential campaign’s air fleet, that guy has a lot to answer for. Turns out he has landed on his feet. Axios.com first to report today that the guy who ran the Trump presidential campaign’s air fleet is now likely to be nominated to run the Federal Aviation Administration in the actual U.S. government. For all of us. Presumably only because the guy who ran over the other guy three times in his car isn’t available. Maybe he’s going to be secretary of transportation.
Trump tends to hire those he has personal connections with – whether it’s family members or those who have worked with him in the past. In almost every instance this turns out to be a bad or puzzling move.
As Maddow continued: “Donald Trump’s golf caddie is the White House Director of Social Media now. His longtime bodyguard is the Director of Oval Office operations. … Eric Trump’s wedding planner was put in charge of HUD for the northeastern United States. A member of the Trump household staff at Trump Tower – her husband ran a home contracting company called ‘Steve’s Tools in Motion’ before he somehow ended up getting a job at EPA Region 2 headquarters in New York. This is the same president who named his bankruptcy lawyer ambassador to Israel.”
While some of these picks are truly laughable, the man Trump wants to run the FAA is more frightening than funny. When he’s in charge, bad things tend to happen. Unlike some of the other picks, overseeing the agency that ensures Americans are safe while traveling on airplanes isn’t a laughing matter – it’s literally life and death.
The president should ditch John Dunkin and nominate somebody who – oh, I don’t know – doesn’t have a plane crash on his record.
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