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President Trump and lawmakers from both parties joined pundits and online activists to quickly heap blame on their political foes in the hours immediately following the fatal midair collision in Washington — all with no evidence to support their claims.
Mr. Trump was both an early target for blame and one to point the finger back at Democrats.
Mr. Trump and other Republicans said Democrats’ zeal for diversity, equity and inclusion had undermined the Federal Aviation Administration’s chief mission of safety.
“I put safety first. [President Barack] Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at the level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse.”
He said it was “common sense” that DEI was connected to the Army helicopter hitting an American Airlines passenger jet, killing everyone on both aircraft.
“It just could have been. We had a much higher standard than anybody else and there are things where you have to go by brain power,” the president said.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was also on the receiving end of Mr. Trump’s ire called his remarks “despicable” and called on the president to “show actual leadership.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he said on X. “We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Democrats blamed Mr. Trump’s federal hiring freeze for the crash Wednesday night just outside Reagan National Airport.
Rep. Norma Torres of California on Wednesday night posted earlier statements by fellow Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who criticized Mr. Trump’s hiring freeze, adding “praying for families and demanding answers.”
And in a now-deleted social media post, CNN commentator Bakari Sellers displayed the same statements by Transportation Committee Democrats who called Mr. Trump’s executive action “a dangerous freeze of air traffic control hiring.” Above it, Mr. Sellers wrote: “8 days ago.”
He later apologized, writing that he deleted the post because “timing matters. Politics at this point does not.”
SEE ALSO: FLASHBACK: FAA turned away qualified air traffic controllers based solely on race
“I [messed] up, I own that,” he said. “I am very prayerful but I’m also very frustrated upset and disturbed with where we are as a country. I recognize, and I will do better.”
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