Sean Duffy Exposed Buttigieg’s Buried Warnings Before He Topped New 2028 Poll

Pete Buttigieg sat on 85 near-collisions over the Potomac before a jet went down at Reagan National.

Now Emerson College says he is the man Democrats want most for the White House in 2028.

Sean Duffy just explained exactly why that should terrify every American who boards a plane.

Duffy Says Buttigieg Sat On 85 Near-Misses Before Deadly DCA Crash

Sean Duffy did not mince words.

The current transportation secretary said his predecessor watched danger build for years and looked away.

Duffy said 85 near misses stacked up over the Potomac River before an American Eagle jet collided with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport.

Sixty-seven people died in that crash.

Asked what Buttigieg did with all those warnings, Duffy's answer was blunt: "Pete did nothing."

Duffy paints a picture of a department that chased social causes instead of runway safety, claiming Buttigieg's FAA spent years pushing pronoun guidance and equity training while air traffic control modernization sat untouched, with $80 billion flowing toward diversity and climate programs along the way.

Republicans on the House Transportation Committee grilled Buttigieg on that same controller shortage while he still ran the department.

Buttigieg told lawmakers he had hired 1,500 controllers that year and promised 2,600 more were coming.

Families who lost loved ones over the Potomac do not get to hear "promised" and feel better about it.

The press treated him as a rising star anyway, not as a man who left the skies more dangerous than he found them.

Democrats Just Crowned Him Their 2028 Frontrunner Anyway

None of that stopped the party from putting him on top.

Emerson College's new national survey has Buttigieg leading the Democrat presidential primary field with 19 percent.

Gavin Newsom trails at 17 percent, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are tied at 13 percent, and Kamala Harris has fallen to 8 percent.

The same poll pegs President Trump's approval at 39 percent and gives Democrats an 11-point edge on the generic congressional ballot.

Here is what the excited headlines will not tell you.

Buttigieg was not the frontrunner in February, when that same Emerson operation had Newsom out front.

He was not the frontrunner in past cycles when Harris briefly held the top line either.

A University of New Hampshire poll had Ocasio-Cortez edging out Buttigieg by a single point just months ago, proof this "frontrunner" title changes hands almost as often as the news cycle does.

Democrats have now rotated through four different "presumptive" 2028 favorites in under a year, and the man safety experts and his own successor say ignored 85 warnings before a deadly crash is the newest one.

Jon Ossoff and Andy Beshear are also creeping up in the same survey, proof the party has no idea who it actually wants.

Josh Shapiro and JB Pritzker are still lurking in single digits, waiting for the current front-runner to stumble.

Democrats aren't picking a nominee, they're speed-dating a party that can't remember who it liked last month.

The Party That Never Asks Why

Here is what actually fires people up about this story.

Democrats are not vetting Buttigieg on competence, they are marketing him on vibes, and the vibes conveniently skip Reagan National.

A man can pour that kind of money into diversity training, let controller standards slide, and still get anointed the future of his party as long as he says the right things about Trump on cable news.

That is not leadership, that is brand management.

Emerson's own numbers say women are driving that 11-point edge, breaking for the Democrat by 27 points while men remain split down the middle.

Cost of living, not cable-news charisma, is what decides elections, and a 27-point gender split is a thin foundation to build a governing majority on.

Your grocery bill and your retirement account do not care who Democrats crown in a primary poll.

You've watched Washington chase diversity paperwork while your Social Security check buys less every year and the FAA still can't keep planes apart over the Potomac.

Buttigieg wants credit for style points while 67 families bury the cost of his substance, and while you're left wondering if anyone in either party actually does the job they're paid for.

Democrats can keep rotating frontrunners every few months if they want.

Until one of them answers for the Potomac, the branding exercise is all it will ever be.

Sources:

• Fox News, "Sean Duffy Accuses 'No-Show' Pete Buttigieg of Trying to 'Rewrite His Record' After Trump Criticism," Fox News, November 12, 2025.
• Breitbart News, "Republican Lawmakers Challenge Buttigieg on Range of Transportation Topics," Breitbart, December 1, 2025.
• Newsmax, "Pete Buttigieg 2028 Election, Democrats Grow for Midterms," Newsmax, July 24, 2026.
• Emerson College Polling, "July 2026 National Poll," Emerson College Polling, July 23, 2026.