American Airlines Investigates Pilot Who Had ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Bag Tag

American Airlines is investigating after a passenger tweeted a photo of her flight’s pilot who had a visible “Let’s Go Brandon” tag on his bag. The phrase is used by right-wingers to disparage President Joe Biden.

The incident comes just weeks after Southwest Airlines said it will be conducting an internal investigation after one of its pilots used a phrase meant as an insult toward Biden.

The phrase “Let’s go Brandon” was used during the pilot’s greeting to passengers over the plane’s public intercom system last month.

 

The pilot’s use of the phrase shocked some passengers who understood the meaning.

Southwest released a statement and said it would “address the situation directly with any employee involved” and wanted to remind employees that “public expression of personal opinions while in duty is unacceptable. Southwest does not condone employees sharing their personal political opinions while on the job serving our customers, and one employee’s individual perspective should not be interpreted as the viewpoint of Southwest and it’s collective 54,000 employees.”

The phrase became popular with conservatives after an NASCAR race in Alabama won by Brandon Brown, was being interviewed by a NBC sports reporter. Brown has said he hates his connection to the phrase.

The crowd behind the winner was chanting something, and the reporter suggested the chant was “Let’s go, Brandon” but viewers were hearing “F- – -k Joe Biden.”

The phrase has even been used in the House of Representatives floor by a Republican lawmaker and is frequently used by Biden critics on social media.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized the reporter for censoring the real chant during the NASCAR game during a podcast appearance.

“The clip is surreal,” Cruz said. “Listening to the NBC reporter say, ‘Look, they’re chanting ‘Let’s Go, Brandon.’ It captures everything about fake news all at once.”