Fox News Chyron Claims Pete Buttigieg ‘Stranded’ Southwest Airlines Customers

A Fox News chyron told viewers that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg personally “stranded” Southwest Airlines customers.

Southwest has canceled more than 15,700 flights since Dec. 22 thanks to a combination of bad weather and a system malfunction caused by underinvestment.

During Wednesday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, guest host Raymond Arroyo played a clip of Buttigieg reacting to the fiasco.

“What this indicates is a system failure,” Buttigieg said on Good Morning America. “Earlier this year – especially over the summer – we saw a lot of problems with a lot of airlines and I pressed them to increase their customer service commitments, to put it in writing, and now that they have put it in writing, we can enforce that. So, I reminded them of their promises and reminded them that we’ll be here to hold them accountable [for] things like taking care of the expenses of those passengers.”

Arroyo mocked his comments.

“Oooh, Mayor Pete’s gonna hold them accountable,” he said, as a chyron on the screen read, “Mayor Pete Leaves Southwest Customers Stranded,” referring to Buttigieg’s previous occupation as mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

The host said holding the airline accountable does not help the stranded customers “right now.”

“Yes, people want to get refunded for the chaos and have their expenses paid, as they should,” Arroyo said. “But that doesn’t help them right now. To hold the airlines accountable, you have to understand the problem. And it’s not clear this administration does.”

The Ingraham Angle wasn’t the only Fox News show on Wednesday to lay blame on Buttigieg. Co-hosts of The Five debated whether the transportation secretary is doing everything in his power to help affected customers.

Watch above via Fox News.