It’s only a matter of time until MAGA blames all of this on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

On Monday, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy held a press conference regarding the progress of the investigation into the deadly plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia airport — and it sounds like it got off to a really messy start.

An Air Canada plane collided with a Port Authority fire truck crossing the runway shortly after the aircraft landed Sunday evening. The fire truck was responding to a call from a United flight reporting a suspicious odor on board. The crash was deadly, killing both pilots, injuring dozens and closing the airport, authorities said.

Homendy noted about four minutes into the press conference that a NTSB team of investigators “began to arrive around 3:10 a.m.” Monday morning, but added that some were “still en route” at the time of her press conference, prompting her to clarify that her agency had not yet had “a full day of investigation.”

Homendy acknowledged that she’s received “a lot of questions” about air traffic control regarding the crash, but emphasized that she wanted to “set expectations,” especially in light of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown — which includes the expectation that Transportation Security Administration officers work without pay throughout the shutdown. This led to more than 3,450 TSA workers calling out sick on Sunday, the same day as the fatal LaGuardia crash. It’s also resulted in extremely long TSA lines throughout the U.S.

“We have DHS that is shut down, and we have long TSA lines,” Homendy said before plainly emphasizing the nightmarish state of air travel in the United States and how it’s directly affecting the investigation.

“Our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours, until we called — in Houston — to beg, to see if we can get her through, so we can get her here,” Homendy said. “So it’s been a really big challenge to get the entire team here, and they’re still arriving as I speak.”

Homendy admitted that they did not expect the entire NTSB team to be at LaGuardia until midnight Monday or 1 a.m. Tuesday due to travel obstacles. She said because of issues at airports, many were traveling by train or car.

Homendy also made a point of noting at the top of the conference that the NTSB is an independent federal agency and not part of the Department of Transportation.

“And why that is important to mention is that as part of our investigation, we also have oversight authority in the investigation over the Federal Aviation Administration,” she said.

There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the DHS shutdown. It began on Feb. 14 when Democrats refused to fund the department without pretty basic accountability reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement after its agents terrorized the residents of Minneapolis earlier this year, resulting in the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

President Donald Trump refuses to compromise with Democrats, and his latest move might make the shutdown drag on even longer.

Trump seems to now be using the DHS shutdown as leverage to get his SAVE America Act passed, and is insisting that it be part of any bill to reopen DHS. The bill would require proof-of-citizenship for voter registration and photo ID at the polls, and stems from Trump’s belief that he won the 2020 presidential election and that it was stolen from him.

Trump threw more gas on the air travel dumpster fire by sending ICE officers to already chaotic airports on Monday to take a role in airport security. Trump says they will remain until Democrats agree to pass a bill to fund DHS.

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