Watch: Duffy warns of holiday travel disruptions if lockdown doesn’t end soon

Vice President J.D. Vance held a closed-door meeting at the White House on Thursday with aviation officials about the impact of the federal government shutdown.

Watch Vance and Transport Minister Sean Duffy’s news briefing in the video player above.

Vance spoke to reporters after the meeting outside the West Wing of the White House, where his message took aim at Democratic lawmakers.

“All we need is five rational Democrats to join three moderate Democrats and 52 Republicans to reopen the government,” Vance said.

He watches: Johnson says House GOP is ‘fed up’ with shutdown in press conference

He added: “I just want to say to any Democrat in the US Senate, we are happy to talk about any political issue. We are happy to talk about health care policy. We are happy to talk about tax policy. We are happy to talk about regulatory policy, but not at gunpoint.” “You have no right to hold the government of the American people hostage and then demand that we give you whatever you want in order to pay our air traffic controllers.”

Duffy warns of travel problems on Thanksgiving

“Our traffic will be disrupted. It will be a disaster for aviation,” Transport Minister Sean Duffy told reporters at Thursday’s press conference.

Duffy has warned in recent days that flight delays may increase as air traffic controllers who lost pay due to the shutdown call in sick. Duffy and Vance were joined at the roundtable by former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, and leaders from the airline industry.

He watches: The closure puts further pressure on the air traffic control system, which is already understaffed

“It’s time to pass a clean slate,” urged United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who joined Vance and Duffy on the watch.

“It’s been 30 days and I don’t have a position on which party side, how things should be settled with health care,” Kirby said.