Sen. Chuck Schumer loves the sound of his own voice, but it carried a bit farther than he might have liked on the US Airways shuttle from New York to Washington on Sunday. According to a House Republican aide who happened to be seated nearby, the notoriously chatty New York Democrat referred to a flight attendant with profanity after she ordered him to turn off his phone before takeoff.
Schumer and his seatmate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), were chatting on their phones before takeoff when an announcement indicated that it was time to turn off the phones.
Both senators kept talking.
According to the GOP aide, a flight attendant then approached Schumer and told him the entire plane was waiting on him to shut down his phone.
Schumer asked if he could finish his conversation. When the flight attendant said “no,” Schumer ended his call but continued to argue his case.
He said he was entitled to keep his phone on until the cabin door was closed. The flight attendant said he was obliged to turn it off whenever a flight attendant asked.
“He argued with her about the rule,” the source said. “She said she doesn’t make the rules, she just follows them.”
When the flight attendant walked away, the witness says Schumer turned to Gillibrand and uttered the profanity.
“The senator made an off-the-cuff comment under his breath that he shouldn’t have made, and he regrets it,” Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon told Shenanigans.
Ironically, Schumer has been a friend of US Airways flight attendants of late, lobbying company CEO Doug Park on their behalf after several of them asked the senator to help keep them based at LaGuardia.
Through her office, Gillibrand said Schumer was “polite” with the flight attendant Sunday and “turned off his phone when asked to.”
But moments after the flight attendant had told Schumer to shut it off, the phone rang again.
“It’s Harry Reid calling,” the source quoted Schumer as saying. “I guess health care will have to wait until we land.”
‘Shhhhh!’
{Politico/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
If it was helthcare to wait they should have kept him upther as long as possible. Thi shealtcare is supposed to help the middle class but all it doing now (as the MAzav article yesterday said) anyobne ma=king over $84,000 must pay $12,500 into hea;lth insurance. A lot of help it is doing…. Keep him up there as long as you can. Help the USA!!!
Matzav’s editorialized headline are what’s out of control, schumer was acting perfectly normal to a typical obnoxious steward.
sorryyyyyy!don’t make a big deal over this btw. dont think health care is sooooo bad its terrible!!!!!!!!!!!1
Out of control?
It sounds like your news source is out of control. The Senator didn’t use a “profanity” AT the attendant. He uttered it after the attendant was GONE. Sounds more like in control than out of control.
Or perhaps the anti-Democratic feelings of Matzav’s editors are a little “out of control” and lead to headlines which are a little bit slanted.