Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on CNN Wednesday, to talk about evacuation preparations underway in Florida, as Hurricane Milton approaches. He also offered a calm voice to counter the stream of misinformation and disinformation being pushed by right-wing politicians and their supporters regarding the relief efforts underway in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“We're working through our Federal Highway Administration with Florida's DOT and local officials. Things like making sure that the shoulder can be used to effectively add a lane on I-4 or I-75,” Buttigieg explained. “The airlines have added capacity and capped fares going out of the affected airports. But most of those are either closed or they're about to close.”
Host John Berman also asked Buttigieg about his handling of billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, who has been promoting misinformation on X.
Musk has a history of spreading false information about a wide array of subjects, and he promoted the idea that the FAA was blocking rescue efforts after Helene. Buttigieg responded to Musk’s dangerously childish tantrum on the tech bro’s social media platform, but was also able to have a real conversation.
"Yeah, I'm a big believer in picking up the phone. So I saw information that he was putting out that didn't seem right to me. It's suggested that the FAA was preventing emergency flights, which is definitely not the case. So I encouraged him to, to, talk to me. That's what I would do with any major business leader who's encountering a problem."
It turns out Musk’s insistence that the FAA and/or FEMA was obstructing rescue efforts was untrue. There were, however, “coordination issues on the ground,” and Buttigieg was able to find a solution to Musk’s personal grievances.
"So, you know, I guess the moral of the story for me is, before taking to Twitter, getting online, work through things, through credible sources, and often the most credible sources in these disaster scenarios, in addition, of course, to FEMA, is folks on the ground, your local first responders."
Buttigieg was able to put out this single Musk misinformation fire, but he warned that the problems of misinformation remain. "This is something that actively harms the ability of responders to do their job,” he said. “I think a lot of it's driven by politics. Some of it's just, the internet doing what it seems to do lately, and amplify the loudest or strangest thing that is being said.”
“You need information, good, accurate information,” Buttigieg continued. “That's what this administration will provide, and that's what we're also, of course, counting on the media to make sure it gets out.”