Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Thursday distanced the company from its opposition to Georgia‘s recently passed election-integrity law and announced a new commitment “collaborative solutions on this important issue,” according to a press release from the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bastian did not explain the reasons for Delta’s past public virtue-signaling against the law and subsequent reversal. However, it is clear that many companies faced intense pressure from far-left groups, the corporate media and the Democratic Party.
Bastian’s answer came in response to a question from Scott Shepard, the deputy director of the center’s Free Enterprise Project, which seeks to expose economically destructive far-left political activism at many major companies.
Shepard asked Bastian to outline the “specific provisions of the bill you object to and why” and “specific substitute reforms you have in mind that will ensure that clean and honest voting is still guaranteed.”
But Delta’s gatekeepers edited the question so that no one could hear evidence of Bastian’s baseless denunciation of the law.
This allowed Bastian to repeat vague platitudes about cooperation and teamwork.
“Delta’s brand is about uniting people. It’s about bringing the world together,” he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “Delta is a brand that’s known for its integrity, respect, understanding and inclusiveness.”
Bastian’s answer sharply breaks from his earlier description of the law as racist, “unacceptable,” and incompatible with “Delta’s values.”
Bastian’s response echoed that of American Airlines CEO Doug Parker when he could not give reasons for his company’s denunciation of Georgia’s election-integrity law, except that it offended “black executives” and the NAACP.
Although Bastian changed his tone, it is likely that his commitment to work “in consultation with bipartisan and nonpartisan organizations as well as election-law experts to see collaborative solutions” means that he will continue to collaborate with far-left groups but in a more discreet manner.
Shepard criticized Bastian for his dishonest leadership at Delta.
“Bastian has failed in his duty of care to the company and to shareholders; he has gotten the facts wrong; he has maligned the people of Georgia not only without evidence, but contrary to the evidence; and then he has misled his shareholders by mangling a shareholder submission that would have made all of this clear and put him on the spot to explain himself,” he said.
