Fired FAA Employee Tells CNN He’s ‘Scared to Death’ Over National Security Impact of Federal Cuts | Video

A former Federal Aviaation Administration (FAA) employee who lost his job to recent sweeping cuts told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Americans should be terrified of what national security and public could become as President Donald Trump moves forward with mass firings.

“I do think the American public does need to be concerned about, you know, not only my firing but also the firing of so many public safety and national security professionals at the FAA,” Charles Spitzer-Standtlander told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. The news platform followed up with Spitzer-Standtlander after he shared his fears with the Associated Press.

“This is about protecting national security, and I’m scared to death. And the American people should be, too,” Spitzer-Standtlander said to the platform in a report that was published on Monday.

Spitzer-Standtlander, along with hundreds of other FAA probationary employees, was fired on Friday as part of Trump mass removal of government workers. At the time, Spitzer-Standtlander was working on an FAA defense program in Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles. While he presumed his employment would remain in tact due to it being centered on national security, he too was given the boot.

While he wouldn’t divulge any details about what exactly his mission/project entailed, he noted that he was doing crucial and “incredibly important” work.

“I gave that quote about being scared to death because, well, I can’t talk about the specifics of the project I worked on, and what all I was doing, what I can tell you is that the FAA national defense program that I was a part of and was incredibly proud to work for the mission to accomplish the mission of, has an incredibly important national security role,” Spitzer-Standtlander explained to Collins. “And I was working on an incredibly important national security work.”

In response to the reports, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “fake news” and stated that “no air traffic controllers nor any professionals who perform safety critical functions were terminated.”

However, Spitzer-Standtlander said Leavitt’s statements aren’t true.

“I don’t really have any knowledge on the air-controller side of that, but I can tell you that the second part of that, regarding public safety or critical safety, from my perspective, and the work I was doing, as a flat out false statement,” Spitzer-Standtlander concluded.

Per NBC News, at least 300 FAA members received termination notices over the weekend, including maintenance mechanics, environmental protection specialists, program assistants and more. The workers’ removals took place just weeks after the fatal plane crash in Washington, D.C.

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