Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates told Newsmax on Wednesday the Biden administration will ultimately be hurting the consumer if it tries to fine Southwest Airlines for the thousands of flight cancellations that began over the Christmas weekend.
"You see an administration that is opportunistic and playing politics," Gates said during an appearance on Newsmax's "American Agenda." "There's no question that the Biden administration is jumping all over this to make sure they look like they're helping the consumer, they look like they're helping the voter."
"Let's say the U.S. government does what it has been doing and they're going to fine Southwest Airlines, they're going to do some sort of punishment," he continued. "All that's going to happen is that that fee, that fine, is going to get passed down to the consumer in some form at a later point."
More than 3,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled Tuesday and nearly 8,000 U.S. flights were delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Southwest Airlines canceled 64%, or 2,694, of its flights Tuesday, and 1,053, or 25%, were delayed.
Things weren't much better Wednesday, with 62% of Southwest's flights canceled and 7% delayed.
Southwest has blamed its operational meltdown on the historic winter storm that swept across much of the country as well as an antiquated scheduling system.
Gates said the Biden administration has had "multiple opportunities over the last year and a half with respect to intervening in these situations."
"It's not just airlines," he said. "It's rail strikes and it's supply chain issues, as a result of inflation, so you have to take all this into account and really judge what Biden and [Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg are doing with respect to the response for this crisis right now."
The former Trump campaign aide also said that Southwest faces an uphill battle to regain the trust of the customer.
"When you have weaknesses in a corporation like this, you typically see them in a crisis moment and that's exactly what happened with Southwest," he said. "There are multiple other airlines that didn't have the same issues, so as Southwest continues to work through its issues, it's really going to struggle to rebuild the trust and gain the consumer back in that regard."
"I think that they have to be absolutely upfront and honest," Gates added. "They have to come out and say what happened, what they didn't do, and there will be a reckoning inside, as corporations do."
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