Elizabeth Warren called blocking the JetBlue–Spirit merger a "Biden win for flyers."
Now 17,000 people are out of a job and ticket prices are going up.
Jesse Watters on The Five just dropped the line that nobody in the Biden camp wants trending.
Biden Blocked the JetBlue Spirit Merger and Then Watched the Airline Shut Down
In January 2024, Biden's DOJ blocked JetBlue's $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines.
Merrick Garland called it a "victory for American consumers."
Warren posted on X that it was "a Biden win for flyers."
Pete Buttigieg's DOT backed the whole thing.
On Saturday, Spirit Airlines ceased all operations at 3 a.m. ET – canceling every flight, shutting down customer service, and locking out 17,000 workers overnight.
Passengers showed up at airports Saturday morning to find their flights simply didn't exist anymore.
No automatic rebooking. No partner airlines standing by. Travelers were on their own.
Watters said on The Five: "I never really liked the idea of a budget airline. You're all the way up in the sky on a budget? They're basically admitting, yep, we cut some corners, the landing is going to be a little rocky."
He had a line ready for that too: "When I buy a bulletproof vest, I don't buy a budget bulletproof vest. I might want to pay a little bit more when it's life and death."
Then he got to the real loss: "We are going to miss not only this airline but the segments. Countless hours of drunks throwing haymakers, twerking in the aisles, people bringing their emotional support squirrels. We can't even quantify the loss."
But Watters didn't let the laughs bury the point. Biden "just let thousands of workers lose their job and all the prices are going to get higher."
Kellyanne Conway sealed it – "I think this should go into the Biden economic bucket as a failure for them since they caused this."
Elizabeth Warren Called the Spirit Airlines Bankruptcy a Biden Win for Flyers
Warren didn't just support blocking the merger – she campaigned for it.
In June 2023, she co-signed a letter with AOC and eight hard-left House Democrats pressuring Buttigieg not to approve the deal.
When the merger was killed in early 2024, she posted on X: "This is a Biden win for flyers!"
She was so confident she had protected working-class Americans that she put it in writing.
Those same working-class Americans – the ones who flew Spirit because Delta was out of their budget – are now either stranded at airports or standing in an unemployment line.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it directly Saturday morning: "The Joe Biden–Pete Buttigieg administration and DOJ tanked that deal."
Spirit had been fighting to survive for years. By the time JetBlue came with $3.8 billion, management knew the options.
Fox News contributor Tyrus had questions for the Democrats who killed this deal: "Why do they hate the airports? Did the airports not give them complimentary water in first class? They don't want to pay TSA agents. Why does the Democratic Party continually go after airports?"
Then he landed it: "I don't think any person who was flying Spirit this weekend, whose flight was canceled and you can't transfer the ticket because it's gone, was saying, 'Wow, thanks, Warren.'"
Spirit Airlines Employees Lost Their Jobs So Biden Could Say He Stopped a Merger
Biden's logic: blocking this merger would protect competition and keep fares low.
The result: one fewer airline in America. Every route Spirit flew – Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando – just got handed back to Delta, United, and American with less budget competition.
Ticket prices on those routes are going up.
Travelers who never set foot on a Spirit plane still felt its presence – because Spirit's budget fares forced the big carriers to keep prices honest on overlapping routes.
Biden and Warren erased that permanently.
Watters put the absurdity in one sentence: "You want more competition for lower prices, but this wasn't it. They were about to go bankrupt. It's like you either merge or you die."
Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno said what needed to be said Saturday morning: "The 14,000 employees at Spirit who've lost their jobs, the travelers who will now pay higher fares – they can thank Elizabeth Warren."
Warren's response to the collapse was to blame Trump's war for spiking fuel costs.
She still hasn't deleted the post calling it a "Biden win for flyers."
Sources
- Fox Business, "Sen Warren faces backlash over JetBlue merger block after Spirit shuts down," Fox Business, May 2, 2026.
- Daily Caller, "Elizabeth Warren Blamed For Killing Beloved Airline Working Class Americans Relied On," The Daily Caller, May 2, 2026.
- Zoe Engels, "Jesse Watters Blames Biden for Spirit Airlines Collapse: 'Let Thousands of Workers Lose Their Job,'" Mediaite, May 4, 2026.
- US Department of Transportation, "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Secures Relief for Spirit Airlines' Flyers and Employees," transportation.gov, May 2, 2026.
- Fortune, "Spirit Airlines is ending operations immediately and going out of business after 34 years," Fortune, May 2, 2026.