Donald Trump says diversity, equity and inclusion hiring "could have been" to blame for the crash that killed 67 people over Washington, D.C. Wednesday ... and, he's placing the blame squarely on Democrats playing politics.
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00:00So, it is obviously a very somber day in our nation because we are dealing with something
00:05we haven't dealt with in a very long time, an air traffic disaster that really has a
00:12lot of people asking questions about what went wrong in D.C. last night as the American
00:18Airlines flight was approaching Reagan National Airport and then collided with a military
00:26Blackhawk helicopter that was on a training flight. Some of those questions were initially
00:33raised by President Trump. Within hours of the crash, he was asking questions about what
00:39went wrong and that to him it seemed like the helicopter pilot could have avoided this
00:46and why didn't the helicopter pilot veer out of the way.
00:50But it wasn't even just questions, it was questions and suddenly accusations so quickly.
00:54And then this morning it has turned to accusations. And I have to say, we know and we talk a lot
01:00about the environment in this country and politics and how everything gets politicized
01:05and divided, but usually one of the great things about our country is that when there
01:09is a tragedy you see people coming together. We saw it here in L.A. after the fires and
01:16in fact we saw President Trump arrive here and shake hands with Governor Newsom, two
01:21men who we know hate each other, but they put that aside for the sake of dealing with
01:26this tragedy and that's what we expect to happen. President Trump this morning addressed
01:31the plane crash and that was not the tone at all. It was immediately finger pointing
01:37even as the recovery mission for the victims was going on, this is what he said during
01:43this news conference.
01:45I signed something last week that was an executive order, a very powerful one, restoring the
01:51highest standards of air traffic controllers. I do want to point out that various articles
01:57that appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one, the FAA's diversity push includes
02:06focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. The FAA, which
02:14is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner, that guy's a real winner.
02:20Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run the Department of Transportation?
02:25He's a disaster. He's just got a good line of s**t. The Department of Transportation,
02:32his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. Well he runs it, 45,000 people
02:38and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity.
02:42So very squarely putting the blame on Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation.
02:54Now Pete Buttigieg immediately saw that clearly and he responded to it and basically pointed
03:00out that this was not the time, as families are grieving, that President Trump should
03:07be leading and not lying, putting safety first. And it is true that under Pete Buttigieg
03:14and under several administrations, it's been 15 years since there was a commercial air
03:22crash with fatalities. So it has been safe. I'm all about criticizing different departments
03:28in the government. I'm all about that. I just think there's also a time and a place. There's
03:32a lot of people that haven't even been notified that their loved ones have gone down in that
03:37plane. Listen, I think that there's obviously a lot of stuff going on in the government
03:42right now that just, you gotta have that sensitivity level with what's happening. Yeah, and that
03:48seemed to be lacking this morning. But there are people trying to get the answers here,
03:53the NTSB, the FAA, all investigating and obviously, if you haven't heard, there are recordings
04:02of the air traffic control moments 30 seconds before the collision. And there is an air
04:08traffic controller who is informing the helicopter pilot to basically look out. Have you seen
04:15this American Airlines flight? And then you hear gasps. It's wild that we're even talking
04:20about this this morning. How does this even happen? How does a commercial airline and
04:25a Blackhawk helicopter collide when it's nighttime? This is an area that they are always
04:32crossing over each other. It doesn't make sense. Just to show you, to visualize what
04:37happens in this area in DC, a video that someone had posted said that he recorded this six
04:44days ago when he was flying out of Washington and was, from the window of his flight, was
04:52noticing these military helicopters flying along the Potomac and just noticing, wow,
04:57it's interesting that they all come that close.
04:59Again, if it's that common, how did this happen? And again, Trump is obviously blaming the
05:05helicopter pilot and all of that. We don't know if there was a medical emergency on the
05:10helicopter. We have no idea what happened. It's time to let the investigation roll out
05:15so we can get some answers. And I'm assuming it's going to be a long time before we get
05:18the answers we need.