Politico’s Playbook co-author Dasha Burns joined HBO’s Bill Maher on Friday’s episode of Real Time to discuss the FAA issuing a nationwide ground stop order and placed the blame for the incident at the feet of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, despite him spending the last two years urging Congress to fund air traffic control modernization efforts.
Maher was skeptical of the idea that there was nothing nefarious going on, “It’s a little after four here in the West Coast, seven in the East Coast, so maybe things have changed, but as a couple minutes ago Secretary Markwayne Mullin, he's our DHS secretary, he said… ‘There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us.’ Well, and there's no indication Markwayne Mullin knows what the fuck he’s doing or belongs in that job.”
Bill Maher says of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin saying ground stop order wasn't due to a cyberattack, "Well, and there's no indication Markwayne Mullin knows what the fuck he’s doing or belongs in that job."
As if Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hasn't repeatedly asked for… pic.twitter.com/JVOXzIFUnH— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 14, 2026
He also declared, “I just want to throw this out there. Maybe it's nothing, but we did lose our email yesterday. Everybody's email went down. The freezers in Europe last week. Somebody hacked into the freezers in the supermarkets. Why the freezers are on the internet, we can talk about that too. I don’t know. It just looks to me—I’m just going to say this without knowing anything, I’m pulling it out of my ass, but I just think we’re being hacked. I do.”
Burns replied by asserting, “I am not normally a tinfoil hat girly, but today I said to my husband, ‘Like, why haven’t we packed the bug out bag, honey? We should’ve done that.’ In all seriousness though, this is also an indication, particularly with the FAA, that policy has impact beyond politics.”
She further claimed, “Listen, the DOGE cuts gutted a bunch of federal agencies, including the FAA, which was already having a worker shortage. We've seen previous airline disasters over the course of this year. That has an impact. Meanwhile, Sean Duffy, the Transportation secretary, is under fire for going out and filming a reality TV show while the FAA has been falling apart.”
While Maher dismisses Mullin’s explanations and Burns blames DOGE and Duffy’s TV show, the administration has attributed the problem to problems with the ATC system’s old technology. All of two days before Burns went on Real Time, her colleague Oriana Pawlyk penned an article headlined “Duffy, White House, ready lobbying blitz on $30B air traffic control request.” Since the start of the second Trump administration, Politico has repeatedly written about Duffy’s efforts to get ATC modernization through Congress, all of which raises the natural question: Does Burns read her employer’s news website?
Here is a transcript for the November 13 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
11/13/2026
10:22 PM ET
BILL MAHER: This is breaking news, as far as it's Friday. Friday the 13th.
DASHA BURNS: Oh, no.
MAHER: Friday the 13th. It’s a little after four here in the West Coast, seven in the East Coast, so maybe things have changed, but as a couple minutes ago Secretary Markwayne Mullin, he's our DHS secretary, he said, “There's no indication” — talking about the planes falling—being grounded. All the planes grounded—
BURNS: Not falling yet.
MAHER: Not falling yet.
MAHER: “There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us.” Well, and there's no indication Markwayne Mullin knows what the fuck he’s doing or belongs in that job. But I mean. I just want to throw this out there. Maybe it's nothing, but we did lose our email yesterday. Everybody's email went down. The freezers in Europe last week. Somebody hacked into the freezers in the supermarkets. Why the freezers are on the internet, we can talk about that too. I don’t know. It just looks to me—I’m just going to say this without knowing anything, I’m pulling it out of my ass, but I just think we’re being hacked. I do.
BURNS: I am not normally a tinfoil hat girly, but today I said to my husband, “Like, why haven’t we packed the bug out bag, honey? We should’ve done that.” In all seriousness though, this is also an indication, particularly with the FAA, that policy has impact beyond politics. Listen, the DOGE cuts gutted a bunch of federal agencies, including the FAA—
MAHER: Right.
BURNS: — which was already having a worker shortage.
MAHER: True.
BURNS: We've seen previous airline disasters over the course of this year. That has an impact. Meanwhile, Sean Duffy, the Transportation secretary, is under fire for going out and filming a reality TV show while the FAA has been falling apart.
