Sean Duffy
Donald Trump has nominated former MTV Real World contestant, current Fox News host, and congressional quitter Sean Duffy as transportation secretary.
Duffy has zero qualifications for the job. He has no experience in the transportation field, which he’d be tasked with regulating and improving as head of the DOT. Maybe Trump picked him because he won both Road Rules: All Stars and Real World/Road Rules: Battle of the Seasons, idiotic shows that had “road” in the title.
“He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports,” Trump said in a statement, which unnecessarily capitalized numerous words. “He will ensure our ports and dams serve our Economy without compromising our National Security, and he will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers.”
After his reality-TV career ended, Duffy went on to run for Congress in Wisconsin, where he served for eight years before resigning in 2019. Duffy resigned because he said his ninth child would be born with complications, including a heart condition, and he needed to spend more time on taking care of her.
Over the course of his eight-year tenure, Duffy had just two bills he sponsored signed into law, one of which was the renaming of a post office.
However, when he was in Congress, he did complain that his $174,000 annual salary was too low, saying he had to drive a—gasp—“used minivan.”
“With six kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high off the hog, I’ve got one paycheck,” Duffy told an angry constituent at a town hall meeting. “So I—I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high off the hog.”
Of course, Duffy’s salary was far higher than the $43,000 average annual salary the rest of Americans earned in 2011, the year Duffy made the comment.
Speaking of salaries—Duffy criticized teachers during an 2022 appearance on Fox News, saying they don't deserve pay raises, even though the national average starting teacher salary this year is $44,530, according to the National Education Association.
After leaving Capitol Hill, Duffy and his unnaturally white teeth became a Fox News contributor and co-host of the Fox Business show The Bottom Line.
While working for the right-wing propaganda networks, he's peddled wild lies and conspiracy theories.
He falsely claimed Disney was trying to "sexualize our children," that white people are now living under a new "Jim Crow," that Democrats are trying to ban cows, and that former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2018, Duffy blamed the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on abortion, saying the shooter may have carried out his killing spree because “[w]e dehumanize life in those video games, in those movies, and with abortion.”
Duffy also made an insanely racist comment in 2021 about Native Americans, saying that “they burned villages, raped women, seized children, took their—took the people they defeated, took their lands, scalped people.” Of course, he made no mention of the horrible injustices Native Americans have faced since Europeans colonized their land.
Duffy’s wife, fellow Real World contestant Rachel Campos-Duffy, is also a Fox News contributor, so she will be able to keep up the Duffy presence on the right-wing propaganda network.
Trump, a frequent Fox viewer, even mentioned that in his statement nominating Duffy.
“The husband of a wonderful woman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a STAR on FoxNews, and the father of nine incredible children, Sean knows how important it is for families to be able to travel safely, and with peace of mind,” Trump wrote.
Don’t get us wrong, Duffy has spoken some truths in his career.
In 2013, Duffy said that Republicans can be "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals."
As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
