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Trump Continuing to Blame DEI For Midair Collision; White House Holds Press Briefing; Midair Collision Investigation. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 31, 2025 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[13:00:57]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The FAA shutting down helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport indefinitely, as investigators try to pin down the cause of this midair collision. What we know about the Black Hawk's route and the victims being remembered.

Meantime, President Donald Trump facing backlash over his response to the tragedy, first blaming it on DEI and Democrats without any evidence, and then criticized for his response to questions about whether he will visit the actual site.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And resign, retire, or get fired. New concerns growing about possible retaliation against senior FBI officials.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for being with us this afternoon. I'm Boris Sanchez with Brianna Keilar in Washington, D.C., where we are waiting to hear from the White House and federal and local authorities as investigators try to piece together how an American Airlines jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River, killing 67 people.

Right now, we know the FAA has indefinitely closed helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport. And as you can see on your screen in these live images, it remains an active site. We also have new videos that offer a different perspective of Wednesday's crash, and we should warn you they are difficult to watch.

And you can see the plane approaching the runway as the helicopter flies in from the left before the collision, both of them immediately crashing into the river below.

KEILAR: And this video appears to be surveillance from the airport, showing both aircraft above the water moments before impact.

There's also a new reporting from "The New York Times" that is putting the Black Hawk's movements right before the crash into sharper focus, all of this as recovery efforts continue, with 14 victims still missing. CNN's Rene Marsh is live for us at Reagan National Airport.

Rene, many developments still happening here. Where does the investigation stand?

RENE MARSH, CNN GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, starting with that "New York Times" reporting, that particularly troubling, considering that "The Times" is reporting that this helicopter that was supposed to be flying at a low altitude, no higher than 300 feet, may have been flying at a higher altitude.

It just indicates, if true and if confirmed, that the pilot of the Black Hawk was not following the flight regulations for that airspace in the moments leading up to that midair collision. But that information about the Black Hawk's altitude will certainly be a data point on the black boxes when investigators retrieve it.

We do know they have not yet retrieved the Black Hawk's black boxes. They have, though, retrieved the black boxes from the commercial passenger plane. It is now in the NTSB lab. They have opened it and they have begun the process of starting to do a readout of the information those black boxes.

We believe that it will take a couple of months before they get the full picture, but the NTSB has said that they will be giving a preliminary report in about another 30 days. The search-and-recovery efforts continue today, but as far as the other aspects of this investigation, the air traffic controllers are going to be critical in this as well.

I am told that the NTSB has not yet had an official interview with those air traffic controllers, at least that was as of this morning, but they have begun the process to do that. And, also, they just won't want to talk to them about what happened on that day, but investigators will be looking at the lives of these air traffic controllers in the last 72 hours.

How much sleep did they get? What sort of medications they may be on? They're looking at the full picture -- Brianna.

[13:05:00]

KEILAR: All right, Rene, thank you for that.

And as we do wait for the White House press briefing to get under way, we are getting some new reaction from President Trump a day after he claimed without evidence that diversity initiatives might be partly to blame for the deadly collision.

SANCHEZ: CNN chief national correspondent Jeff Zeleny is live for us at the Briefing Room right now.

Jeff, what did President Trump say?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, we are going to hear from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt any moment now.

But, certainly, this is the second White House briefing that she has done and she is taking the podium now. We will take our seats.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: How are you? Nice live shot. Good to see all of you. Happy Friday. It's great to be back with you.

I want to provide an update on President Trump's actions in the wake of the catastrophic air collision that tragically claimed the lives of 67 people at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. Everyone in this White House continues to mourn the victims and keep their friends and families and our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.

First, within moments of the collision, the president and his newly appointed team were in immediate communication. The president was briefed on Wednesday evening following the crash, again on Thursday morning. And he has continued to receive updates as recovery efforts continue on the ground.

The president, as you know, took time to address the nation yesterday afternoon. To deliver accountability, President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and policy aviation safety standards.

The memorandum directs the secretary of transportation and the FAA administrator to immediately review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years and to take all necessary corrective actions to achieve uncompromised aviation safety.

The review will include a comprehensive assessment and reversal of any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety standards and protocols during the previous administration. Aviation safety was addressed by President Trump before this tragic collision even took place.

On his second day in office, the president signed a memorandum to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to nondiscriminatory merit-based hiring. And, in 2018, during President Trump's first term, the Department of Transportation announced it would put an end at that time to use the biological questionnaire that was introduced by the Obama administration, which punished skilled applicants.

President Trump has long led on the issue of aviation safety, and he will continue to do so. He will continue to deliver on the promises he made to the American people at record speed.

The Senate has already confirmed eight of President Trump's exceptional Cabinet nominees, including, most recently, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, as you, of course, know, EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is scheduled to be sworn in later today. We expect the Senate to continue quickly confirming the remainder of

President Trump's well-qualified nominees in the days ahead. Earlier this week in the East Room, the president proudly signed the Laken Riley Act into law, surrounded by Laken's loving parents and sister.

This commonsense bipartisan law mandates the federal detention of illegal aliens who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury, like the animal who murdered Laken Riley in cold blood.

This was the first piece of legislation President Trump proudly signed as the 47th president of the United States, and it will guarantee that Laken did not die in vain. As Laken's mother, Allyson, tearfully said during the signing event, President Trump said: "He would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Laken and he hasn't. He's a man of his word, and we trust that he will fight for the American people.'

Those are the words of Laken's mother, and we will never forget them.

So, to help lock up even more criminal illegal aliens, President Trump signed a memorandum this week to detain them at Guantanamo Bay. This action will expand the migrant operations center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide critical extra detention space for high-priority criminal illegals.

Our brave ICE agents continue to arrest more and more of these types of individuals every day in communities across our country. And I have more updates for you. On January 27, 2025, ICE Chicago arrested a citizen of Guatemala who has been convicted of solicitation to meet a child, disturbing, and sentenced to 24 months' probation.

[13:10:06]

On January 28, 2025, ICE Atlanta arrested a citizen of South Korea who has been convicted of nine counts of possession or control of material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct. On January 28, ICE New York arrested a Mexican national previously charged by the state of New York for attempted murder and possession of a weapon and assault.

And on January 28, ICE Philly arrested a citizen of Mexico who has been convicted of possession of child pornography. Our message is simple. If you are a criminal illegal alien, you will be arrested and deported.

On another important matter, the Nation's Report Card was released this week, and the news is not good. It showed that U.S. students had record low reading comprehension scores last year. It's National School Choice Week, and in part of the president's commitment to education, he just left a roundtable in the Roosevelt Room focused on this issue with leaders from across the country.

The National Report Card showed that 70 percent of eighth graders were below proficient in reading, and 40 percent of fourth graders did not even meet the basic reading levels. This is completely unacceptable to the president, and he continues to take aggressive actions to address this education problem in our country.

He signed an executive order this week prohibiting federal funding of the indoctrination of our children, including radical gender ideology and Critical Race Theory in the classroom. The president believes American education should focus on cultivating patriotic citizens who are ready for the work force.

And this action will help get schools back on track and defend fundamental parental rights in education. The president also signed a school choice executive order expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families.

And in lighter news, but in exciting news, after announcing our Briefing Room changes on Wednesday, this White House has received more than 10,000 submissions from individuals across the country who are eager to join all of you, we might have to make this room a little bit bigger to do that, who want to participate in our new media seat at a future briefing.

So in this seat today, we have the "Ruthless Podcast." They humbly started by entertaining small audiences on Capitol Hill, but after four years, this program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America. They previously reached number one on the charts and earned over 25 million downloads as they deliver political news with a humorous touch.

The hosts are Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug. And the man joining us today, John Ashbrook.

So, with that, I will take your questions.

John, please kick us off.

QUESTION: Thank you very much.

Karoline, in your first briefing, the media went after this administration for deporting illegal immigrants they claimed were not criminals.

LEAVITT: That's right.

QUESTION: The question is, do you think they're out of touch with Americans demanding action our border crisis?

LEAVITT: The media out of touch?

(LAUGHTER)

LEAVITT: I think that media certainly is out of touch, and I think that's proven by a number of things, John.

Number one, there was a "New York Times" poll that was released prior to President Trump's inauguration by "The New York Times," which, of course, is a legacy media outlet, that showed that 83 percent of Americans support deporting the individuals that you mentioned, illegal immigrant criminals, especially those who have committed heinous crimes in the interior of our country.

And I received a very actually interesting statistic on this front from ICE this week; 97 percent of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a removal order from the previous administration, but were never removed from the interior of our country.

So this shows that the previous administration was actually defying our laws, and all this administration is doing is simply following the laws, the immigration laws of this great country. Thanks for the question, John. Anything else?

QUESTION: No, that's it.

LEAVITT: OK, great.

Peter.

QUESTION: Thanks, Karoline.

If President Trump is telling us that air traffic control towers are stacked with unqualified controllers, these DEI hires who never should have been brought on, then it's not safe to fly commercially, is it?

LEAVITT: The president was asked and answered this yesterday, and he believes that it is still indeed safe, and Americans should feel safe traveling our skies.

With that said, two things can be true at the same time. And we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration. And the president wants to increase those standards. He wants pilots in this country who have the great responsibility of flying American citizens by the tens of millions every single day to be chosen for that position based on their merit and their skills.

[13:15:02]

And so the administration will continue to prioritize this.

QUESTION: Was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower on Wednesday night hired or not fired at some point because of his or her race?

LEAVITT: That investigation is ongoing. And so when we have updates on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision, including the air traffic controller, also the pilots of the helicopter and others, we will confirm those.

I don't want to confirm names from this podium today. We're not in a position to do that. But I will say the president has still rightfully pointed out that there has been problems with the aviation industry over the past several years.

And this started under Barack Obama in 2014. QUESTION: And when the president says on TRUTH Social, the Black Hawk

helicopter was flying too high by a lot, it was far above the 200-foot limit, that's not really too complicated to understand, is it, is he suggesting a helicopter malfunctioned or a crew error or a crew doing this intentionally?

LEAVITT: No, the president is simply stating what he said in that TRUTH Social post, which is that the helicopter was flying higher than it should have been, which is one of the reasons that led to this collision.

And the other reasons for that are still being investigated. And I will let that investigation play out.

Kelly.

QUESTION: Some of our colleagues have obtained a memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency that talks about not holding any activities or programming related to Black History Month to be in line with the president's views on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Does the president plan to have a proclamation about Black History Month? In his first term, each of the four years of his term, he did so, and called on those in government to have programming activities and celebrations. Is he going to do that this year?

LEAVITT: Yes, the president looks forward to signing a proclamation celebrating Black History Month. I actually spoke with our great staff secretary. It's in the works of being approved, and it's going to be ready for the president's signature to signify the beginning of that tomorrow.

QUESTION: If an agency is calling off those kinds of activities in an attempt to be in alignment with the president's views on DEI and other things, should they adjust that now and have those programs and make those celebrations, however they see fit, in the office?

LEAVITT: The president is leading here at the White House, and I will leave it to the proclamation that he will sign very soon.

Mary, great to see you.

QUESTION: Thanks for having us.

So I wanted to follow up on the gender executive orders that you mentioned. First of all, we know that President Trump has taken a bunch of steps to protect children from irreversible transgender procedures. Is he interested in backing congressional legislation on this point? And does the Trump administration have interest in investigating doctors who perform these irreversible procedures on kids, such as a double mastectomy on a minor girl?

LEAVITT: Well, the president has already taken a very strong stance on this issue this week with the signing of his executive order, a few executive orders in this space. First, he made it the official policy of the federal government that

there are only two sexes, male and female, and we have directed all federal agencies to comply with that policy. As for congressional legislation to support the president's agenda in this space and certainly ending the mutilation of young children, the chemical castration of young children, which is a barbaric practice that the vast majority of Americans do not support for young minor children, certainly, the president would support Congress' efforts, as he has already made that very clear this week.

Jennifer.

QUESTION: On Ric Grenell's trip to Venezuela to meet with Nicolas Maduro, is there anything you can share on timing on that, what his agenda is, what the mission of that trip is?

LEAVITT: Yes.

So I can confirm that Ric Grenell is in Venezuela today. I can confirm that Ric Grenell is going to Venezuela or is in Venezuela with very two immediate directives from the president of the United States. Number one, Ric Grenell has been instructed to identify a place and ensure that repatriation flights of Tren de Aragua members, Venezuelan nationals who have broken our nation's laws will land in Venezuela.

As I said at this podium a few days ago, we expect every nation on this planet to cooperate with the repatriation of our citizens. And so Ric Grenell is in Venezuela to ensure that can continue. And, number two, Ric Grenell is in Venezuela to ensure that all U.S. detainees in Venezuela are returned home.

That's his mission and I will provide a readout after this trip.

QUESTION: On Bob Menendez, can you tell us if anyone has approached the White House or the president about a pardon or a commutation?

LEAVITT: I have not been part of those discussions if they have. I am not sure if they have, but I won't speculate on potential pardons that may or may not happen. To my awareness, the answer is no.

Justin.

QUESTION: Hey.

Friends at Reuters are reporting that the president has made a decision the Canada-Mexico tariffs, but that they won't actually be implemented until March 1. I was wondering if you could confirm that and talk through some of the president's thinking.

[13:20:00]

LEAVITT: I saw that report, and it is false. I was just with the president in the Oval Office.

And I can confirm that tomorrow, the February 1 deadline that President Trump put into place in a statement several weeks ago continues. The president will be implementing tomorrow a 25 percent tariffs on Mexico, 25 percent tariffs on Canada, and a 10 percent tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans.

These are promises made and promises kept by the president.

QUESTION: The president yesterday said that last night he was planning to discuss whether an exemption would be made on oil imports.

Do you have any information on what decision he made there or will there be exemptions at all offered under those...

(CROSSTALK)

LEAVITT: I don't have an update or readout for you on the exemptions. But those tariffs will be for public consumption in about 24 hours tomorrow. So you can read them then.

Steven Nelson.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Karoline.

I have three questions, if that's all right. I'd like to ask you about press freedom and then about two economic matters. On press freedom, on Tuesday, you announced plans to roll back the more restrictive press badge policy of Biden White House.

But there's a different anti-press freedom policy I wanted to ask about. The Biden White House adopted a mysterious prescreening process for journalists allowed into large event spaces that in the pre- pandemic phase first Trump term were open to all journalists on campus.

This effectively limited the diversity of performers present and blocked asking questions that large segments of the American public community wanted answered.

SANCHEZ: You're listening to the press secretary at the White House in what I believe is her second briefing.

Just confirming some major news. In fewer than 24 hours, the White House is set to enact a 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada, a 10 percent tariff on China, though the White House would not provide clarity on whether there would be exceptions for certain things.

Leavitt essentially saying that that would be coming as the order is rolled out tomorrow to levy those tariffs. This is in line with a vow that President Trump made a few weeks ago. She also at the top of her remarks made clear that the president has received multiple briefings on the situation with the midair collision over the Potomac, insisting that the president is right in questioning whether DEI policies played a role in what happened.

She did say, though, to a question about specific evidence that is the case, that at this point in the investigation the White House has no indication that anyone involved in what happened was either hired or recruited via DEI policies.

So the president's assertion there remains one that has no backing.

KEILAR: It's sort of having it both ways, but she's also trying to stress that air travel is safe...

SANCHEZ: Right.

KEILAR: ... right, which is what officials really want to drive home here. She stressed his remarks previously that air travel is still safe.

But, by his logic, if DEI threatened the performance of someone or if it's something that you can attribute the cause of this to, at least in part, which there is no evidence of, but if you buy into that, then that's something that he hasn't taken care of, because this is something that happened on his watch.

Therefore, you would think that problem would still exist then...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: ... not just at Reagan National Airport.

But, again, his claims are based on no evidence. We do have to stress that at this point. You can't have it both ways when you're trying to make that point.

But we're hearing that certainly on the point of this midair collision, this air disaster that we have witnessed just a day-and-a- half ago here.

We will have more on that collision ahead. Stay with us for a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:06]

SANCHEZ: Moments ago, we were listening to the White House press briefing. We are continuing to follow those remarks live. We will bring you the highlights as we get them.

As we follow the investigation into the collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet over the Potomac, the NTSB is scheduled to give us an update this afternoon. But the White House press secretary just insisted something that we heard from President Trump a couple of days ago, essentially saying that DEI played a role in this accident.

KEILAR: And yet also she said something else, right...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: ... which was that there aren't specifics to indicate that, so kind of having it both ways. SANCHEZ: Yes. The investigation is still ongoing. She said they have

not yet processed who exactly was involved, whether air traffic controllers or pilots of the commercial airline or in the Black Hawk helicopter.

So it's tough to square that.

KEILAR: Exactly, two things that really can't be true at the same time here.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: And then, earlier this morning, he wrote this on TRUTH Social -- quote -- "The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That's not really too complicated to understand, is it?"

Joining us now to discuss are Shawn Pruchnicki, who is a former accident investigator and commercial pilot and now an aviation studies professor at Ohio State University, and Vincent Sugent, who's a former air traffic controller.

Shawn, at this point in time, just take us through what you understand about the altitude, the routes and where these aircraft were and perhaps where they should have been.

SHAWN PRUCHNICKI, FORMER FLIGHT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: Well, so, as everyone's starting to understand this picture of DCA, this is very congested.

And this is very normal that the military helicopters use the Potomac. This is a flyway that they use on a routine basis. So there's nothing abnormal about the regional jet swinging around to use Runway 33. Something that the NTSB, of course, is going to look into is the altitude of the helicopter.