WASHINGTON — They introduced the gun present to the airport.
Passengers at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport got an surprising shock Monday when health buff Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received right into a pull-up contest with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy whereas flexing a billion-dollar funding.
Earlier than testing their energy, the 2 cupboard secretaries had been touting a $1 billion funding to make airports throughout the nation extra family-friendly, conducive to good well being and higher for breastfeeding.
“I don’t need you to have a full-body sweat occurring til you stink,” Duffy advised The Submit after taking off his tie and jacket to pump out a set of pull-ups when requested about considerations that gymnasium nuts will assail fellow vacationers with exercise funk.
“However in the event you do a couple of good pull-ups, get your blood flowing, I believe that’s optimistic. This isn’t like go to the gymnasium, sweat and get on an airplane.”
Weeks earlier, Duffy rolled out a civility marketing campaign encouraging vacationers to be extra courteous and thoughtful of others. He ripped into passengers who present as much as airports of their pajamas and put their toes up on the chair in entrance of them.
Finally, health guru Dr. Paul Saladino got here out on prime with 21 pull-ups, adopted by Kennedy at 20 within the impromptu contest. Duffy eked out 10, however was bested by his daughter, who cranked out 13.
The Submit’s lenient tabulation counted reps that didn’t go all the best way up and concerned swinging.
Duffy, 54, and Kennedy, 71, had teamed as much as launch a “Make Journey Household Pleasant Once more” initiative, which seizes on $1 billion in funding beforehand handed by Congress.
“I’m asserting at DOT that we have $1 billion in funding for grant packages to make the expertise higher in airports,” Duffy defined.
“I need to develop the play areas for children. I need extra nursing pods for nursing moms. Possibly I need a exercise space the place folks would possibly get some blood flowing, doing some pull-ups or some step-ups.
The HHS and Transportation honchos stood in entrance of a Farmer’s Fridge dispensary, which sells salads and different wholesome meals, and pointed to it as a mannequin of what they need the general public to eat in airports.
“I can inform you that this is the place wholesome diets go to die,” Kennedy grumbled to reporters about airports.
Kennedy, who claims to fly a median of about 250 days a 12 months, railed in opposition to airports for being a hotbed of ultra-processed meals, sugar bombs, and different junk meals that may ” depart you sicker than earlier than you ate it.”
Duffy and Kennedy had been flanked by Saladino, Farmer’s Fridge CEO Luke Saunders, and influencer Isabel Brown in rolling out the “Make Journey Household Pleasant Once more” initiative.
Noting that he was a person, and it was due to this fact “awkward” for him to debate the efforts to enhance situations for breastfeeding in airports, Duffy kicked the press convention over to Brown to debate methods to enhance nursing.
“I don’t suppose we have but figured out a manner for males to breastfeed,” she joked.
Brown recounted being stranded at airports with a child and struggling to determine a option to breastfeed, an expertise she careworn was frequent for moms throughout the nation.
“It may be extremely disheartening to see the rolled eyes and visual annoyance and anguish once we sit down with our infants on an airplane seat. However that pales compared to the jarring lack of help that many airports throughout the nation present for breastfeeding mothers,” she mentioned.
“The regulation does technically require each airport terminal to have a nursing room, however the context of the regulation says nothing about whether or not that area is clear, clearly marked, or truly monitored and maintained.”
Duffy careworn that his workforce could be very open to public suggestions and options for methods to enhance airports.
Beneath the Biden administration, the DOT rolled out a coverage proposal to ban airways from charging households for sitting collectively. Duffy mentioned he has no replace on that and that it’s nonetheless underneath evaluate.
Duffy additionally admitted he doesn’t at present have a plan to sort out the excessive prices of meals at airports.
“It’s fascinating. It’s market demand and provide. They have airports fairly tightly contained — there’s not a whole lot of choices,” he mentioned in response to a query from The Submit.
“I don’t have a plan to cut back prices. What I’m making an attempt to do is present more healthy choices for folks.”
