President Donald Trump has blamed diversity and inclusion for one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history.
The commander-in-chief said the collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in Washington D.C, that took 67 lives, was a ‘tragedy of terrible proportions.’
He added that those flying the Black Hawk helicopter should have ‘seen where they were going’.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said the tragedy was entirely preventable as he slammed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices in federal agencies.
He added that he had some ‘pretty good ideas’ of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.
Trump then said he put ‘safety’ first while Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden prioritized politics and called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a ‘disaster’ in an extraordinary attack on previous administrations.
‘He was a disaster as a Mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls***’, Trump said of Buttigieg.
Trump added: ‘The initiative is part of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Think of that.’
Then he insisted that federal agencies need to be hiring based on intelligence rather than on diversity. He added that Air Traffic Controllers need to be ‘geniuses’.
As a reference, he pointed to a report from within the FAA that the workforce was ‘too white.’
On Wednesday night, American Eagle flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight as it approached the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
There were 60 passengers and four crew aboard the PSA flight out of Wichita, and three members of the military aboard the Black Hawk.
All are believe to have perished after the search and rescue transitioned to a recovery phase.
Divers have been in the frigid waters of the Potomac River overnight tyring to find bodies as investigators tried to piece together what led to the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2019.