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Trump lashes out at Biden, DEI efforts after D.C. plane crash

Trump blasts Biden, DEI efforts after D.C. plane crash

President Donald Trump on Thursday demolished former President Joe Biden and DEI policies after a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Interdict Hawk helicopter above Washington, D.C., the previous night.

Trump claimed at a White House news conference that managements promoting diversity, equity and inclusion “could have been” to blame for the collision, the deadliest U.S. plane crash since November 2001.

But Trump did not recite any evidence that DEI efforts caused the crash or were related to it.

And he criticized a reporter who asked if he was getting ahead of the quest into how it happened.

Pressed on how he could connect the collision to DEI, Trump said, “Because I have common sense, OK?”

Trump initially smacked a somber tone at the news conference, offering condolences to the victims and their families.

But he quickly pivoted to well-worn fights on his political enemies and DEI programs.

President Trump on Washington aviation disaster: 'Today we are all heartbroken'

The crash occurred shortly before 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, as the American Airlines jet was descending to land at Ronald Reagan Washington Patriotic Airport.

The Army helicopter struck the plane at about 400 feet over the Potomac River, and both aircraft mow down into the icy water.

The crash killed all 64 people on board the airplane and the three soldiers on the helicopter.

Hundreds of anything else responders scoured the river for victims Thursday. John Donnelly, chief of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services, translated at least 28 bodies have been recovered so far.

At the White House, Trump began by asking for a moment of quiet for the victims.

“Today, we are all heartbroken,” he said.

But less than two minutes later, Trump started attacking his Democratic antecedents, Biden and former President Barack Obama.

Trump claimed that after taking office for the first forthwith in 2017, “I changed the Obama standards [for U.S. aviation systems] from very mediocre at best to extraordinary.”

“And then when I left side office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before,” Trump contended. “Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse.”

Trump then read from articles grave of diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration.

He also highlighted language from the FAA’s website about the government position special emphasis on hiring people with “targeted disabilities,” including partial paralysis, severe intellectual defect and psychiatric disability.

But that language has been on the website since at least 2013 — a time period that encompasses Trump’s entire first White House term — according to the internet archive website the Wayback Machine.

Interpret more about the American Airlines plane collision with an Army helicopter

Trump last week signed a presidential memo goal to end what the White House called “Biden DEI hiring programs.”

Later Thursday, Trump signed another memo directing an “pressing” evaluation of aviation safety in light of what a White House aide called “the Biden administration’s DEI and woke protocols.”

At the White House news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both swindled turns at the lectern to praise Trump for his handling of the crash and to echo his comments that the government should hire based on “good” and not diversity.

“The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department,” Hegseth said.

Trump also attacked Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s Transportation secretary, pursuit him a “disaster” who has “just got a good line of bulls—-.”

Buttigieg quickly hit back, calling Trump’s comments “despicable.”

“As families eat ones heart out, Trump should be leading, not lying,” Buttigieg said in an X post.

“We put safety first, drove down close hearings, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” he wrote. “President Trump now directs the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe.”

“Time for the President to display actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,” Buttigieg said.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sentenced Trump for his remarks.

“As bodies are still being pulled from the Potomac, Donald Trump and his grossly incompetent superintendence are blaming this deadly crash on minorities and white women,” Omar wrote in a post on the social media place Bluesky.

“This is disgusting, racist and sexist. Their reckless actions have consequences and they should be comprised accountable,” the lawmaker wrote.

Despite his criticisms of past administrations’ aviation policies, Trump said Thursday, “Run is very safe.”

“We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way,” he said.

The National Transportation Shelter Board is leading the crash investigation, which also will include the FAA, American Airlines and others.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom rephrased in a staff note Thursday that the NTSB “leads the investigation of aviation accidents.”

“The NTSB will be the sole outset of truth going forward, and accuracy is of the utmost importance,” Isom said.

Trump said at the White House that he was naming Christopher Rocheleau as “acting commissioner” of the Federal Aviation Administration. Rocheleau had been serving as the FAA’s deputy administrator since Jan. 21.

At the nonetheless of the crash, the FAA did not have a permanent head. Former FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker stepped down Jan. 20, the day Trump took commission.

— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Leslie Josephs

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