Ted Cruz shot back at Jen Psaki after she mockingly called him a 'world-renowned business, travel and health expert,' and claimed to have been told by a 'senior source in aviation' that a recent onslaught of flight cancelations were the result of vaccine mandates.
Asked in a daily briefing about those who say that vaccine mandates have put a dent in the US workforce, the press secretary replied: 'I know world-renowned business, travel, and health expert Senator Ted Cruz has made that point, but I wouldn't say that is widely acknowledged or echoed by business leaders ... by health experts ...'
'So now Biden WH is launching snarky insults from the WH press room.,' the Texas Republican wrote on Twitter.
'Ok, Jen, I just spoke with a very credible & senior source in aviation who told me the following - a few days ago, there was a “sick out” of air traffic controllers in Jacksonville over vaccine mandates.'
'As a result, out of 33 air traffic controllers ONLY THREE showed up to work- That resulted in cascading flight cancellations. True or False, Jen? Or do you just do petty insults & ignore actual facts? #ThanksJoe'
Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over the weekend and another 363 on Monday.
Furious passengers said that they were told in airports that the cancellations were due to Southwest employees walking out in protest at the airline's decision to enforce COVID-19 vaccinations.
But the airline said that that was not the case, and said poor weather in Jacksonville, Florida, sparked a knock-on effect.
'Southwest Airlines extends a tremendous apology to our Customers and Employees for the flight cancellations and delays which occurred over the weekend and on Monday,' the airline said.
'On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, primarily created by weather and other external constraints, which left aircraft and Crews out of pre-planned positions to operate our schedule on Saturday.
'As a note, the operational challenges were not a result of Southwest Employee demonstrations.'
The Dallas-based airline was the only airline to report such large-scale issues over the weekend, and
