Stuff happens, and when it does, the responses from public officials matter.
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This week, I am preparing for our annual family trip to New York City for Thanksgiving. We first visited NYC in 2003, so it gave us an excuse to visit the City, and it’s become our vacation tradition ever since…
Here are some pictures of us from these trips:
Events this week caught my attention because they relate to our upcoming trip: First, with the city itself – New York City – and second, how we’re going to get there – via air travel.
Of course, we’re now genuinely interested in how this could affect us, so we’re listening to those who have public responsibilities here and what they have to say.
And the week demonstrated a stark difference in leadership between the two sets of leaders.
First, regarding New York City. On Wednesday, eight people died and 18 were injured when a building in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn collapsed. Here’s an overview from CNN reporting: [1][2]
A building collapse is rare in New York City, but when it does happen, it exposes “the cracks within our social safety net for all New Yorkers,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the advocacy nonprofit New York Immigration Coalition.
That’s especially true for immigrant communities, Awawdeh told CNN, who are often forced into unsafe, overcrowded conditions due to soaring housing costs.
The building in the Flatbush neighborhood that collapsed, killing six adults and two children, was home to a mix of immigrant communities. Two construction workers were among the eight who died, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The eight people who died deserve justice, Awawdeh said. “We expect our elected officials and those who run our justice system to hold the individuals accountable,” he said.
“We want to ensure that every person, regardless of immigration status, is able to have access to the funds that are raised and any supports that are available,” Awawdeh added.
And here is a follow-up report, investigating the matter from NBC News: [3]
How did Mayor Zohran Mamdani handle it when it happened? He held a press conference on the same day to inform the public on how the city government was responding. He gave a brief opening statement and then handed things over to the city’s Fire Commissioner, Fire Chief, and Commissioner of the Department of Buildings for more specific information about what happened and the initial response. [4]
A day later, in the rain, he and his staff held an outdoor press conference at the building site to inform New Yorkers further of what happened and what they were doing. This included: [5]
Representatives from the FDNY, NYPD, and other key agencies, as well as the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, were present and participating in an all-of-government response.
A comprehensive and thorough investigation is underway, both at the construction site and the building that collapsed. The Department of Buildings is leading it.
Additionally, there are five main entities involved with this construction site that are associated with approximately 100 other sites across the city. The Department of Buildings is commencing sweeps of those sites as well.
Vacate orders are in place for three neighboring buildings. The MTA has diverted several bus routes. Flatbush Avenue was closed, and the public was advised to avoid the area.
Phone numbers were provided for New Yorkers and those outside New York City if they are unable to reach someone affected by the collapse.
While the investigation is ongoing, the public can have confidence that the New York City government and its partners have the public’s interest in mind and are keeping people informed.
The responsible leaders show up, provide a level of confidence on how the government is responding, and then hand things over to informed people on the specifics of that response. With a confident but highly informed response, the public can trust that competent leaders are handling the situation effectively and keeping the public informed about what is driving their decisions, and what the public needs to know to inform their own decisions.
Contrast this with the response from the Secretaries of Transportation and Homeland Security.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a nationwide ground stop of all aircraft in a two-line press statement. [6]
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide updates.
Here is how this unfolded live on MS NOW, with the FAA citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety” as the nationwide ground stop was put in place: [7]
Later in the day, the ground stop was lifted and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin addressed the press corps about the events – this from NPR reporting: [8]
The nationwide ground stop that paralyzed the U.S. aviation system on Friday has ended, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The rare stop, which lasted about four hours, grounded thousands of flights at all U.S. airports in one of the biggest disruptions of the nation's air travel system since the September 11th attacks.
In a Friday night news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that air traffic control facilities had experienced "intermittent" outages of their radar and communications systems beginning earlier in the afternoon. Duffy blamed outdated technology for the failures.
"We have old switches, old routers. We use 1980s little copper lines. It's an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded," he said.
But when pressed by reporters on exactly why those systems would become overwhelmed on an otherwise normal travel day, Duffy did not have a ready answer.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin joined Duffy in the White House briefing room and said there was no evidence the issue was due to an attack.
"We have seen zero evidence this is a cyber attack," he said.
Instead of giving the public insights into what happened, why it happened, and what they’re doing, Secretary Duffy demanded that Congress give him more money: “I want $50 billion,” said Duffy. From Bloomberg reporting: [9]
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on Congress to authorize $50 billion in emergency funding to overhaul the US air traffic control system after a technical issue spawned the longest nationwide grounding in more than two decades.
“This is an emergency,” Duffy said at a White House press conference on Friday. He recently asked for about $30 billion to continue funding his agency’s project. “I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion.”
Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the outage was caused by older routers being overloaded with data after new software patches were installed throughout the system, but that personnel are still investigating.
It resulted in “intermittent” issues with air traffic control communications, as well as with radar feeds that are used to guide aircraft, Duffy said.
At the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, Duffy unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan to modernize and then upgrade the aging ATC infrastructure after a midair collision near Washington killed 67 people in January 2025.
Duffy later that year secured $12.5 billion to kickstart the project, but clinching more funds has proven to be a politically fraught task even considering the issue has bipartisan support. His department wrote a letter, co-signed by the Office of Management and Budget, to re-up a standing $30 billion request this week.
Adam Smith (D-Washington), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said on Friday that of the $12.5 billion Duffy’s department received for these upgrades, it has only spent $1 billion to date: [10]
The interesting part about this is, as Sean Duffy gets up there and says, ‘just give us $50 billion and all the world’s problems will be solved.’ Well, they got $12 billion last year, eighteen months ago now, in H.R. 1, the reconciliation bill Republicans passed.
To date, they’ve only spent a billion of it. Sean Duffy’s got $11 billion just sitting in a corner somewhere. So, go get after the problem.”
In contrast to the all-of-government response and the experts brought in to answer questions, analysts viewed Duffy and Mullin as bungling the response: [11]
Communications failures in the air on Friday were followed by communications failures on the ground.
The government’s muddled messaging about the FAA’s nationwide ground stop added to the anxieties of stranded passengers and induced conspiracy theories about the “real” cause of the chaos.
Officials held a second press conference on Saturday morning to address questions and alleviate concerns, but it started late due to technical difficulties — an unfortunate metaphor of the larger problem.
The flight chaos came right on the heels of a global Microsoft outage that lasted the better part of a day. The tech giant explained the situation in hard-to-decipher social media posts, adding to the confusion about why Outlook email wasn’t working.
This week’s Microsoft and airport meltdowns were unrelated, but both contributed to an unnerving sense of instability inside systems that most people take for granted every day.
In both cases, social media platforms were stacked with comments from users asking if rogue AI models were to blame and speculating about a broader breakdown in infrastructure.
At Saturday’s press conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the travel disruption was due to an isolated incident with an old telecommunication system.
“We see zero evidence of anything nefarious and zero evidence of anything AI-related,” FAA administrator Bryan Bedford added.
Saturday’s explanations, though, were deemed too little, too late by lawmakers and crisis communication experts who said the initial response made a bad situation even worse.
“The basics of crisis communications are not difficult to grasp,” said CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. “In the moment, leaders need to be transparent and clear. They need to tell people what is known, what is not known, and what they are doing to close that gap. We got little of that on Friday.”
The communications failures extended to the individual airlines that had to reroute and cancel flights.
As of now, we still don’t know the precise causes of either incident – the collapse of the Brooklyn building, or the communications issues that led to a nationwide grounding of air travel.
But these responses demonstrate the contrast in how leaders handle crises.
If we can take off our partisan glasses, we can notice that there is a real competence gap. Personally, I want competent leaders on either side of any political divide when crises occur – as Americans, I think we deserve that.
Notes and Sources
[1] “Investigation into deadly NY building collapse widens as rescuers complete search for survivors,” CNN, updated November 13, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/11/us/live-news/brooklyn-building-collapse-nyc
[2] Eduardo Cuevas, “Building collapse exposes cracks in safety net for New Yorkers, immigrant communities, advocate says,” CNN, November 13, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/11/us/live-news/brooklyn-building-collapse-nyc
[3] “Brooklyn district attorney opens criminal investigation into deadly building collapse,” NBC News, YouTube video, November 11, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M8kaCvo05Y
[4] “Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds Press Conference on Brooklyn Building Collapse,” Office of the Mayor, New York City, November 11, 2026, https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/11/transcript--mayor-mamdani-holds-press-conference-on-brooklyn-bui
[5] “WATCH LIVE: Mayor Mamdani holds briefing on deadly Brooklyn building collapse,” PBS NewsHour, YouTube video, November 12, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmtJTL3qhaU
[6] “FAA Statement on Nationwide Ground Stop,” Federal Aviation Administration, press release, November 13, 2026, https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statement-nationwide-ground-stop
[7] “BREAKING: Nationwide ground stop issued in U.S. for ALL AIRCRAFT in ‘EXTRAORDINARILY UNUSUAL’ move,” Deadline: White House, MS NOW, November 13, 2026, https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/watch/breaking-nationwide-ground-stop-issued-in-u-s-for-all-aircraft-in-extraordinarily-unusual-move-2520685635883
[8] Joel Rose, Juliana Kim, and Bill Chappell, “Old tech blamed for the ground stop that caused flight chaos: 'It got overloaded',” NPR, November 13, 2026, https://www.npr.org/2026/11/13/nx-s1-6040403/faa-nationwide-groundstop-airports
[9] Will Guisbond, “Duffy Calls for Emergency Air Traffic Upgrade Funds After Outage,” Bloomberg, November 14, 2026, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-14/duffy-calls-for-emergency-air-traffic-upgrade-funds-after-outage
[10] “Trump admin’s ‘level of incompetence and indifference’ putting Americans at risk, says top Dem,” The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, MS NOW, November 13, 2026, https://www.ms.now/the-last-word/watch/trump-admin-s-level-of-incompetence-and-indifference-putting-americans-at-risk-says-top-dem-2520732739519
[11] Brian Stelter, “‘No answer’: Messaging failures worsened the air traffic freeze and sowed distrust in government,” CNN, November 14, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/14/media/air-traffic-grounded-flights-duffy-mullin
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