Former top Biden official: Garland DOJ stopping JetBlue-Spirit merger might have been bad call

"Maybe the merger would have made both Jet Blue and Spirit better? Jet Blue is a perfectly comfortable airline," Neera Tanden wrote on X

By Nicholas Ballasy

Published: May 2, 2026 10:56am

Updated: May 2, 2026 11:02am

A former top official in the Biden administration is questioning the decision by his Department of Justice to stop the Jet Blue and Spirit Airlines merger after Spirit announced its closure on Saturday.

Neera Tanden, the CEO of the Center for American Progress, served as U.S. Domestic Policy Council from 2023 to 2025 and senior advisor and staff secretary to former President Biden from 2021 to 2023.

"Given the news today that Spirit Airlines is shuttering and thousands of people are losing their jobs, I think we should honestly assess whether the Garland DoJ stopping the JetBlue merger with Spirit Airlines was the right call. Perhaps it was but any analysis must consider as part of the equation the loss to so many families ro [to] decide," she wrote on X.

Tanden responded to a user's post, writing, "Maybe the merger would have made both Jet Blue and Spirit better? Jet Blue is a perfectly comfortable airline."

Garland worked to stop the merger and it was ultimately blocked by a federal judge in 2024.