DHS Chief Markwayne Mullin Throws Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Under Bus

Things got a little awkward during a press conference about the nationwide ground stop when DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin inadvertently laid blame on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ... before the FAA revealed they lost 12,000 flights.

It all went down Friday night ... when Mullin was asked if any cyberattack was responsible for the "extraordinary circumstances" that led to system malfunction.

Mullin said ... "What it appears to be right now, as Secretary Duffy and FAA was going in and putting patches into the system, they were putting new equipment and new technology and that new equipment and new technology just wasn't, it was overwhelming the older system."

As Mullin gave this response ... Duffy's system was seemingly overwhelmed too by what was said.

Handing his head low, Duffy shook his head and at one point, may have even nudged Mullin from behind the podium. All in all ... it did not appear as if Duffy liked Mullin's response at all.

According to Duffy ... the "old legacy equipment" was to blame for the error and he warned there would be several more incidents in the future.

He said ... "This is an emergency. I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion."

Speaking with the press Saturday ... Duff said there's no better time than now to provide the much-needed funding ... while the FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford revealed 12,000 flights had been lost yesterday.

Saturday's press conference was a little tense too ... Bedford interrupting Duffy multiple times.

As you know ... the FAA lifted the ground stop -- that was implemented under "extraordinary circumstances" -- Friday night.