Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin offered a less-than-reassuring take on the possibility that a “bad actor” caused the nationwide ground stop.
Mullin appeared on Fox News’ Sunday Briefing, where he was asked about his initial assumption that a cyberattack was behind the chaos.
“Isn’t it possible that a bad actor, whether it’s a state leader, a state government, or just some hacker somewhere, could have flooded these routers in Arkansas with data to shut things down?” host Peter Doocy asked.
Markwayne Mullin was questioned about his knee-jerk reaction to blame a cyber attack for the aviation crisis.
Mullin responded with a head-scratcher: “Well, here’s where I come from, Peter: I don’t believe in coincidences until I’m proven wrong. And right now, I’m being proved wrong.”
The MAGA politician’s explanation only grew murkier as he attempted to clarify whether sabotage remained a possibility.
“So is it a possibility?” he asked himself, before answering: “Possibly.”
Mullin, 49, then suggested that despite the self-professed chance of sabotage, he had decided it almost certainly wasn’t the case. Instead, he echoed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s explanation of outdated tech systems.
The DHS head said that a bad actor was a ‘possibility,’ but he’d ruled it out with ’98 percent certainty.’
“I would love to point it at a bad actor because then we know who to go back and punch. But the fact is, it isn’t.
“It really appears to be, with 98 percent certainty, that this was—this is because of a 50-year-old system that we’re trying to operate in today’s world.”
Doocy didn’t seem convinced by Mullin’s fast-and-loose interpretation of probability.
“So you said just now that… you don’t believe in coincidences until you are proven wrong. Your first comment on Friday night was that the FAA failure and Microsoft outage on back-to-back days were not related,” the host said.
“But you get why so many people watching this think that something big is happening here, right? And that these things would be connected?”
Mullin said with surety that outdated tech was behind the nationwide ground stop, and that it was not linked to the Microsoft outage in any way.
Mullin brushed off the concern, insisting that his department would identify those responsible if foul play were involved.
“Yeah, I get that, and there’s conspiracy theories running all over the place,” he said.
“My job is to take—inside of Department of Homeland Security—and to use all 22 of our components to make sure that’s not taking place. And if it did, we’d be honest with the American people and say, ‘This is what’s taken place, this is who did it, and this is who we’re going after.’”
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