Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy defended his reality television road trip project on Tuesday in a fiery Senate hearing, as Democratic senators called it an unethical and tone-deaf vacation that would be unaffordable to most Americans.
In a series of heated exchanges, Mr. Duffy lambasted Democratic senators who suggested that transportation companies may expect special treatment from him for donating to the nonprofit that funded the project. The five-episode YouTube series features Mr. Duffy, an early reality TV star, his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy and their nine children driving through 10 states. The administration has said it is part of official commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
“Do you have jurisdiction over law firms?” Mr. Duffy asked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, accusing her of having accepted millions from trial law firms.
“Oh my god. This has nothing to do with members of Congress,” Ms. Gillbrand retorted, denying having flown on a private jet. “This has to do with the fact that you went on a paid vacation that was paid by companies that you oversee.”
Mr. Duffy tried a similar line with Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, after she asked what perks an airline executive might expect to receive by donating a million dollars to the nonprofit behind the venture.
“From me, nothing,” Mr. Duffy said, before retorting: “If someone from the health industry gives you $2 million what do you get for it?”
“You obviously came here with a book on every one of us so instead of answering our questions, you could attack,” Ms. Murray said. Mr. Duffy’s retorts were “out of order,” she added, noting that it was “astonishing that you are so angry at a question that I asked.”
Mr. Duffy’s combative stance was a notable shift for the transportation secretary, who has presented himself as congenial and accessible as he has appealed to Congress for investments in aviation safety. Even during last year’s government shutdown, when his efforts to plead the cause of unpaid air traffic controllers made him the de facto spokesman for the Trump administration’s bargaining position, he largely refrained from attacking Democrats personally.
On Tuesday, Mr. Duffy maintained that affable posture in his exchanges with panel Republicans, and Democrats whose questions steered clear of the road trip. When leading Republicans criticized him for proposing deep cuts to programs like the Essential Air Service, which subsidizes routes to some smaller airports, and certain surface transportation grants, arguing that it would hurt rural America, he did not lose his cool.
“This is asking for the system to be more efficient,” Mr. Duffy said calmly in an exchange with Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and the chair of the appropriations panel, who challenged the air service cuts. “We do not want to see communities cut off from air travel.”
But with the Democrats who challenged his road trip, he transformed into the kind of defiant, MAGA television warrior that President Trump has valued in his subordinates.
“Welcome to MAGA, welcome to drill baby drill,” Mr. Duffy said to Ms. Murray, when she pointed out that most Americans could not afford to emulate Mr. Duffy’s road trip because of high gas prices, which have spiked since Mr. Trump attacked Iran.
Some of the key concerns Mr. Duffy’s critics have raised about his trip were left unanswered.
Mr. Duffy has maintained that the ethical concerns over the funding of the road trip are unfounded, citing the approval of unnamed ethics and budget officials from his department. He has also cited a memorandum of agreement between the department and the nonprofit, which stated that the nonprofit’s financial backing was an official, legal gift to the department, for which the nonprofit would receive no special treatment.
The agreement did not cover the companies that donated to the nonprofit, who did not sign the document. And it did not explain how Mr. Duffy’s wife and children, who are not employees of the department, could legally benefit from an official gift to the federal government.
Another accusation leveled by Democrats centered on the affordability of the type of road trip Mr. Duffy was encouraging.
“The show is incredibly out of touch with where Americans are,” Sen. Murray had said of Mr. Duffy’s trip, after he could not tell her how much the family accumulated in gasoline costs over the course of the trip. It was filmed in spurts over the course of seven months, not as a single, cross-country adventure.
“Americans don’t have corporate sponsors to pay for their gas,” Ms. Murray said, adding: “You’ve been recording a promo of yourself and not looking to lower the cost.”
As their exchange descended into tit-for-tat accusations of grift, Mr. Duffy landed on a line he has used against his critics since the scrutiny of his trip began.
“Do you hate America?” Mr. Duffy asked Ms. Murray coolly. “Don’t you want to celebrate America? It’s our birthday.”
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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