Government data torpedoes Swalwell's viral claim about plane crashes on Trump's watch: 'Habitual liar'

Department of Transportation data provided by a senior administration official contradicts that data and shows more plane crashes during the first few weeks of Biden's term.

Swalwell had posted in response to a small plane crash in Georgia that left two dead.  

There were 55 aviation accidents in the U.S. between Biden's inauguration on Jan. 21, 2021, and Feb. 17, 2021, compared to 35 during the same period for Trump.

Worldwide, there were 91 aviation accidents during that same time period for Biden and 50 during Trump's first few weeks. 

"Eric Swalwell is a habitual liar and fraud, who continues to beclown himself every single day because he suffers from a debilitating and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain," White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. 

"As an elected official, he should actually tell the truth for once, but it's understandable he's incapable of that since he has Fang Fang on his mind all day."

Swalwell told Fox News Digital in a statement he was referring to commercial airliners, although his initial post stated "planes."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back at the time, pointing out that the "crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air-traffic controllers overseeing it."  

She then disputed the Democratic attack line about Trump firing FAA officials. 

"And the facts about the FAA are that no air-traffic controllers have been let go by Secretary Duffy or this new administration. In fact, Secretary Duffy has put great emphasis on hiring the best and the brightest air-traffic controllers who want to be part of the FAA," Leavitt argued.

Fox News Digital's Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.