Sean Duffy Dragged After Sharing Bizarre Proposal For How To 'Get Some Blood Flowing' At The Airport

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was criticized after he said that airports should add workout areas as part of his bizarro effort to make air travel a more pleasurable experience for travelers.

As part of his push to brand the initiative as “family friendly,” Duffy unveiled a $1 billion funding program that airports can apply for to build additional nursing suites, children’s play zones, dedicated family security lanes, and fitness spaces for travelers.

Duffy said this would be a good way to "get some blood flowing" at the airport—an already stressful and discombobulated experience as it is:

"I want to expand the play area for kids. Maybe I want additional nursing pods for nursing mothers. Maybe I want a workout area where people might get some blood flowing, doing some pull-ups or some step-ups in the airport."

"Maybe you want to have a different lane for families to get through TSA. How can you make the experience better as you go through an airport? $1 billion is going to go to that."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Moments later, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who had joined Duffy for the press conference at Ronald National Airport in Washington, D.C.—and Duffy squared off in an impromptu pull-up contest after Duffy was asked whether he was concerned that passengers might end up “smelly” from working out.

He replied:

“I don’t want you to have a full-body sweat going on until you stink. But if you do a few pull-ups, get your blood flowing, I think that’s positive. So this is not like, go to the gym, sweat and then get on an airplane.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom remarked that Duffy "would like you to do pulls [sic] up while he forces you to wait for your delayed flight."

Newsom, via his official press office account, later shared a photo of Duffy doing pull ups in the airport, joking that "this is exactly what we were missing to make airports more pleasant and enjoyable."

Duffy was widely mocked.

Duffy recently made headlines after he spoke out about air travel etiquette and not wearing pajamas or taking your shoes off on an airplane

Duffy, who appeared at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, to discuss his efforts to “restore courtesy and class to air travel," argued that air travel would be a better experience for all if people took more pride in their appearance on flights.

He said he "would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave a little better." He said people shouldn't wear slippers or pyjamas or take their shoes off on airplanes in order to be "cognizant and courteous" to others around them.

However, once clips of his remarks went viral, critics pointed out that none of his suggestions actually address the problems surrounding travel delays and airport security that passengers are actually concerned about.