Tipsheet

Scott Bessent Slams Sen. Warren, Biden Admin, for the Death of Spirit Airlines

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  May 04, 2026 11:30 AM

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that Spirit Airlines’ collapse, only a day earlier, could have been avoided, placing much of the blame on Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the Biden administration for opposing the company’s proposed merger with JetBlue. 

Bessent argued that had the deal gone through, thousands of jobs lost over the weekend might have been saved, and the airline would have had “more resiliency.”

"And Secretary, let me get your take on what took place in terms of Spirit Airlines, because I know that the Democrats did not want Spirit to merge with JetBlue a year ago, and now we see that Spirit Airlines closed operations. The Treasury was supposed to be doing a deal to save this company," Fox News' Maria Bartiromo said. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Sure, Maria. So this is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration," the Treasury Secretary replied. "In September 2022, Elizabeth Warren, who loves to write letters, sent a letter to the Justice Department, to the Transport Department, saying that they should oppose the merger with Spirit Airlines. JetBlue wanted to buy them for $3.8 billion."

"It would have given them much more resiliency. And she and the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who's probably the worst Transportation Secretary in history when he came to the office, were against the merger. And if JetBlue had merged with Spirit, we would have all these jobs that were lost yesterday," he continued. "We had 30 regional airports who have lost service."

"And I can tell you what happened here. It wasn't Treasury," Bessent added. "It was Commerce that was trying to put something together. But the reason we were here was because the merger the Biden administration opposed the merger. We shouldn't have been here in the first place."

This comes as past statements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) resurfaced, in which she opposed the merger in 2024.

The Trump administration briefly considered spending $500 million to bail out the airline, though critics blasted the potential move, arguing the government should stay out of the issue.