The NTSB had to

It’s only a matter of time until MAGA blames all of this on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

On Monday, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy held a news conference on the progress of the investigation into The deadly plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport – and it looks like it got off to a really rocky start.

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An Air Canada plane collided with a Port Authority fire truck that was crossing the runway shortly after the plane landed Sunday night. He The fire truck was responding to a call. of a United flight that reported a suspicious odor on board. The crash was deadly, killing both pilots, injuring dozens and shutting down the airport, authorities said.

homelike noted about four minutes into the press conference that a team of NTSB investigators “started arriving around 3:10 a.m.” on Monday morning, but added that some “were still on their way” at the time of her press conference, prompting her to clarify that her agency had not yet had “a full day of investigation.”

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Homendy acknowledged that he received “a lot of questions” about air traffic control in connection with the crash, but stressed that he wanted to “set expectations,” especially in light of the closure of the Department of Homeland Security – which includes the expectation that Transportation Security Administration officials will work without pay during the shutdown. This led to more than 3,450 TSA workers reporting sick on Sunday, the same day as the fatal LaGuardia crash. It has also led to extremely long lines at TSA across the US.

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“We have DHS shut down and TSA with long lines,” Homendy said before clearly emphasizing the nightmare state of air travel in the United States and how it is directly affecting the investigation.

“Our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours, until we called, in Houston, to beg, to see if we could get her through, so we could get her here,” Homendy said. “So it’s been a big challenge to get the whole team here, and they’re still arriving as I speak.”

Homendy admitted that they did not expect the entire NTSB team to be at LaGuardia until midnight Monday or 1 a.m. Tuesday due to travel obstacles. He said that due to problems at airports, many were traveling by train or car.

“And the reason it’s important to mention that is that as part of our investigation, we also have oversight authority in the investigation into the Federal Aviation Administration,” he said.

There appears to be no end in sight to the DHS shutdown. It began on February 14, when Democrats refused to fund the department without fairly basic accountability reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement after its officers terrorized Minneapolis residents earlier this year, resulting in the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

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Trump appears to be taking advantage of the DHS shutdown as leverage to get his SAVE America Act passedand insists that it be part of any bill to reopen DHS. The bill would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID at the polls, and stems from Trump’s belief that he won the 2020 presidential election and that it was stolen from him.