President Donald Trump began a White House briefing Thursday with a moment of silence and prayer for the victims of Wednesday’s crash at Reagan National Airport. But his remarks quickly became a scathing diatribe against diversity hiring and his accusation — so far without evidence — that low standards were to blame for the accident.
Trump on Thursday pointed fingers at the helicopter’s pilot, air traffic control, his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for what he called a “disaster.” Buttigieg responded by calling Trump “disgusting.”
The cause of the crash is still unknown. Officials are investigating and have not publicly identified the cause or said who might be responsible for the collision between the American Airlines plane and the U.S. Army helicopter.
Blaming diversity hiring
Trump was repeatedly asked to explain why he was blaming federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the crash, at one point alleging that previous leadership had determined that the Federal Aviation Administration workforce was “too white.” He did not back off on those claims, while also declaring that it was still unclear whether the FAA or air traffic controllers were responsible for the crash.
1. Question: “Are you saying this crash was in any way a result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”
Trump: “It could have happened. We have high standards. We have much, much higher standards than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brain power. You have to go by psychological quality, and psychological quality is a very important element of this. There are these various, very powerful tests that we used. And they were passed by Biden. And Biden ran by a standard that wants exactly the opposite. So we don’t know. But we do know that you had two aircraft at the same level. You had a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn’t have happened. And, we’ll look. We’ll look into it, and we’ll look. But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the most intelligent, the smartest, the sharpest person. We want someone who is psychologically superior. And that’s what we want.”
2. Question: “You blamed diversity elements today, but then told us you weren’t sure the controllers made a mistake. You then said maybe it was the helicopter pilots who made the mistake.”
Trump: “It’s all under investigation.”
3. Question: “I understand that. So I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had anything to do with this accident.”
Trump: “Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want talented people doing this job. It’s a big chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in in a short period of time, and they’re all coming in from different directions, and you’re dealing with very high-level computers, computer work, and very complex computers.”
Trump was challenged on his claim that the FAA had promoted hiring of people with disabilities under Democratic presidents. The page Trump referenced has been on the FAA’s website for a decade, including his first term.
4. Question: “The implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts started under President Biden or Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, is clearly false. It’s been on the FAA’s website —”
Trump: “Who said that, you?”
Trump took another opportunity to criticize diversity hiring efforts for the crash, ending the news briefing.
