Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (D) on Sunday went after the current secretary of the department, Sean Duffy, over a reality show he filmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love road trips. I love America. I actually took a taxpayer-funded road trip lasting about seven months. It was in Afghanistan. This is something very different,\u201d Buttigieg told CNN\u2019s Dana Bash on \u201cState of the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not about patriotism. And it is an embarrassment to have him going around saying that a road trip \u2014 quote \u2014 \u2018fits any budget\u2019 at a time when more and more Americans cannot afford a road trip, because of the explosion in diesel prices and gas prices caused directly by the Iran war and by the Trump administration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo make road trips unaffordable and then go around celebrating your own road trip is exactly what people are so frustrated about, and part of why the Duffy road trip scandal has been such an embarrassment to the Trump administration is, it\u2019s happening at the same moment that Trump is alienating voters by making it clear that he doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, Duffy\u2019s wife said that her husband is not a \u201ccorrupt man\u201d in the wake of a watchdog group pushing for the inspector general to investigate her and her husband\u2019s reality series, \u201cThe Great American Road Trip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can accuse my husband of not having done his job well. In fact, people have been remarkably happy with it,\u201d Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy said during a radio appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd my husband is not a corrupt man. He\u2019s had many years in politics, and nobody has ever accused my husband of that. And he certainly would not take favor with anybody because they contributed to an America 250 project, which is about celebrating America,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campos-Duffy\u2019s comments come after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington\u2019s effort to investigate her husband as well as the show\u2019s possible sponsorship from Toyota, United Airlines, Boeing and other members of the transportation industry that face regulation from the Transportation Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hill has reached out to the Transportation Department for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n