Duffy’s Road Rules: What We Learned From The Dot Secretary’s Youtube Series

Snowmobiles, self-driving cars and wedding vows. A Cabinet member vaccinating calves. And many, many on-screen plugs for the corporate sponsors paying the bills.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s family road trip video series has finally appeared on YouTube, weeks behind schedule and still facing the ethics and optics questions that have dogged it for months.

POLITICO binge-watched the six-episode show, which totals nearly three hours, to see what the nation’s transportation chief was up to as he crossed the country with his wife and most of his nine children on a series of excursions from the Grand Canyon to Boston in celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

The episodes have drawn a total of about 7,700 views as of Thursday afternoon — admittedly, well below the 23 million views of “The Original Grumpy Cat!” The series may not have come out in time for the Fourth of July itself, but it did debut just ahead of the National Mall grand prix IndyCar race that Duffy has done much to promote.

From the Duffys’ tour of a Boeing plant to a football game at Fenway Park, the video travelogue offers a lot to unpack. Here are POLITICO’s top, immediate takeaways:

Spot the sponsors

Industry behemoths that DOT oversees — and who helped support the show — are noticeable throughout the series.

A nonprofit, Great American Road Trip Inc., covered the show’s production costs, DOT says, whose total price tag remains undisclosed. Among the 20 sponsors listed on the organization’s website are a host of companies regulated by Duffy’s department, such as Toyota, United Airlines and Boeing. That arrangement has prompted some Senate Democrats to call on the agency’s independent watchdog to investigate.

POLITICO identified at least five occasions in which Toyota vehicles were on screen with their logo or the automaker’s name being prominently displayed. In those instances, it appeared that the Duffys were driving them, or in one case getting into a minivan.

While visiting Charleston, South Carolina, the family dropped by a Boeing factory that produces the aerospace giant’s 787 Dreamliner plane. (In a voiceover, Duffy’s wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a cost-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” said the jet maker’s “massive Washington state location” is open year-round for “anyone who wants a tour.”) Said Duffy: “To have the kids there with me makes my job that much more enjoyable.”

In Texas, Duffy toured an asphalt and concrete firm, Texas Materials, that is part of CRH — a sponsor of the show that is a major player in road construction. Duffy wore a hard hat on site but its logo was blurred out in the series; it appears that it was Texas Materials’.

The logo of another sponsor, the American Bus Association, is visible as the DOT chief and a few of his children ride a bus in Phoenix. At least some of the organization’s members are regulated by DOT.

The bus took them to a meeting with Waymo, the Alphabet-owned self-driving car company that DOT oversees, so they could go for a spin in its autonomous vehicles. Waymo isn’t listed on the nonprofit’s website as a sponsor, but its logo appears at the end of each episode among other corporate backers of the series.

Sponsor Royal Caribbean Group appeared in a trailer promoting the show as the Duffys went aboard one of its cruise ships. But the finished episodes didn’t include that stop.

Tori Barnes, head of Great American Road Trip Inc., said in a statement said the series’ focus “was highlighting iconic American travel destinations, without regard to individual sponsors.” She added that in regard to Duffy bringing his family to experience his work, “What a great leader, teacher and father.”

DOT didn’t respond to a request for comment. Toyota, Boeing, CRH, Royal Caribbean Group and Waymo didn’t respond to a request for comment.

American Bus Association President and CEO Fred Ferguson in a statement said the organization is “proud to support an initiative that promotes travel, tourism, and greater access to destinations across the country.”

Toyota, Boeing, CRH and Royal Caribbean Group also didn’t respond to a prior inquiry from POLITICO about how much they donated to the nonprofit. The American Bus Association previously said it had a “bronze-level” sponsorship of $100,000.

DOT has said that ethics attorneys cleared Duffy’s participation in the series, that no taxpayer dollars were spent on his family and that celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday is part of his “official duties.” Barnes has said her organization complied with “all laws and guidelines that are required.”

A gift agreement between the department and Great American Road Trip Inc. says the nonprofit acknowledges that it won’t receive “any favorable consideration for any future federal financial assistance.”

Blurred lines

The show is a blend of Duffy’s personal life and job.

In Arizona, he and his family had breakfast with Campos-Duffy’s parents before the Waymo meetup. On camera, Duffy discussed American traffic fatalities and how he thinks the company’s technology can help reduce them.

When Duffy dropped by Texas Materials, meanwhile, Campos-Duffy was at a western clothing shop in Fort Worth looking for outfits to wear to a ranch. “My husband wanted to be here but he has to work,” she said.

At one point in the show, Duffy offered something of a plug for the asphalt and concrete company: “As the secretary of the Department of Transportation, parts of my job is to stop by and see the businesses that actually make construction and projects work. CRH is the leading company that provides” asphalt and concrete in the United States, he said.

While in the Boston area, the Duffys headed over to Harvard University’s Catholic Center. One of the DOT chief’s daughters, Paloma, was mulling where she wanted to go to college. Duffy, a devout Catholic, earlier in the episode expressed worry about the school, telling Paloma: “They have professionalized figuring out how they can take good young girls like you and, I think, corrupt their minds.” The family later met with a campus priest who helped ease Duffy’s fears.

Duffy and some of his children also attended a football game between the DOT-run Merchant Marine Academy and the Coast Guard at Fenway Park, an annual rivalry.

Made for the smallest screen

From snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park to visiting the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Duffy and his family hit some of America’s best-known travel destinations.

But in a nod to his and Campos-Duffy’s roots on MTV’s “The Real World,” the show features plenty of reality-TV-tinged moments that add dramatic, or unusual, elements to the series.

In Tempe, Arizona, Duffy and Campos-Duffy renewed their vows on their 27th anniversary — in the same city where they had marked the original wedding, with the same pastor.

One of their daughters, Evita, who was pregnant, and her husband, Michael Alfonso, who is running to represent Duffy’s old congressional district in northwest Wisconsin, at one point had an ultrasound technician come by to determine the sex of the fetus.

At another stop, Duffy’s family gets an archery lesson at the Texas ranch, minus the DOT secretary. Campos-Duffy wonders what her husband is doing. She asks a ranch hand: “What’s the worst chore they could have made him do today?”

“Oh my Lord,” he responds, “vaccinating all the calves.”

The show immediately shifts to Duffy prepping a pistol-like syringe. He plunges it into the neck of a calf held inside a caged pen.

“I’m vaxxing cows!” he exclaims with wide-eyed enthusiasm. “Can I do one more?”