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President Trump Blames DEI For Midair Collision. Aired 11:30a- 12p ET
Aired January 30, 2025 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:03]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress, where you have many, many planes coming into one target. And you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it.
Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring, the FAA's Web site states.
They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism. All qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, a little runway.
The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Think of that. The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.
I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's just the opposite. The FAA Web site shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23 of...22. They wanted to make it even more so.
And then I came in. And I assume maybe this is the reason. The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. That's the guy who's a real winner. Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run this Department of Transportation?
He's a disaster. 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 bullshit.
The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, well, he runs it, 45,000 people, and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity. So I had to say that it's terrible.
Then it's a group within the FAA, another story, determined that the work force was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. This was in the Obama administration just prior to my getting there.
And we took care of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans. We took care of everybody at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It's one of the reasons I won. But they actually came out with a directive, too white. And we want the people that are competent.
But now we mourn and we pray. And would like to ask all Americans to join me in a moment of silence as we ask God to watch over those who have lost their lives and bring comfort to the loved ones. And I just want to say, God bless everyone in this room.
This has been a terrible very short period of time. We will get to the bottom of it.
So we all saw the same thing. We have seen it many times. I have had the honor of hearing tapes. Tapes are scary, very scary tapes. You had an airliner coming in, American Airlines. He was doing everything right. He was on track. He was the same track as everybody else. They came in. It's probably the same track as they have had for 25 years or more.
He's coming in the path. And, for some reason, he had a helicopter that was at the same height, obviously, when they hit, but pretty much the same height, and going at an angle that was unbelievably bad, when the air traffic controller said, do you see -- he's talking about, do you see him?
But there was very little time left when that was stated. And then also, he said, follow him in. And then almost, immediately after that, seconds after that, there was the crash that took place.
Well, you follow him in. That means, like, everything's fine, follow him in. You had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter, I mean, because it was visual. It was a very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be.
The American Airlines plane had lights blazing. They had all their landing lights on. I could see it from the Kennedy Center tape. We had a tape up on the Kennedy Center. That seems to be the primary -- that's why I'm sure we will see other tapes, because it's such a -- an area where there are a lot of cameras, a lot of cameras looking up in -- into the air, into space. So, we'll probably see many other shots of it before too much time goes by.
[11:35:10]
But we had a situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop. I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn and the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously.
And it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told. We don't know that that would have been the difference because the timing was so tight. It was so -- it was so little, there was so little time to think. But what you did have is you had vision. The helicopter had vision of
the plane, because you had vision of it all the way -- perfect vision of it all the way from at Kennedy Center where the tape was taken. And for some reason, there weren't adjustments made.
Again, you could have slowed down the helicopter substantially. You could have stopped the helicopter. You could have gone up. You could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned. You could have done a million different maneuvers. For some reason, it just kept going and then made a slight turn at the very end. And there was, by that time, it was too late.
They shouldn't have been at the same height, because if it was at the same height, you could have gone under it or over it. And nobody realized, or they didn't say that it's at the same height. At the same height, it still wouldn't have been great, but you would have missed it by quite a bit.
It could have been a thousand feet higher. It could have been 200-feet lower, but it was exactly at the same height and somebody should have been able to point that out. So, all of this is going to be studied, but it just seems to me from a couple of words, that I like to use the words "common sense".
Some really bad things happened and some things happened that shouldn't have happened. So, you had a helicopter going in an identical direction. You had a helicopter that was at the exact same height as somebody going in essentially the opposite direction.
You had a plane that was following a track, which is a track that every other plane followed. And I don't imagine -- I know I have heard today that they might have been following the preceding plane, which was pretty close, but not that close, the preceding plane.
But you wouldn't have even been able to see that because of the direction that the helicopter was coming in at. So, you had a confluence of bad decisions that were made, and you have people that lost their lives, violently lost their lives.
We're going to take a few questions. I would like to ask our new Secretary of Transportation to say a few words, Sean Duffy. A great gentleman. Just started. It's not your fault. And I know you agree with me very strongly on intellect and even psychological well-being of the air traffic control. Such an important position.
And I think I can't emphasize stronger. I changed it when I first ran in 2016. I changed it. We had the highest standard that you could have, and then they changed it back -- that was Biden -- to a standard you just -- I read it to you. That was from one of your papers.
One of the people in this room actually wrote that. And then I changed it back a few days ago and, unfortunately, that was -- we'll see. We don't know that necessarily it's even the controller's fault.
But one thing we do know, there was a lot of vision and people should have been able to see that, you know, at what point do you stop. At what point do you say, wow, that plane's getting a little bit close. So, this is a tragedy that should not have happened. Please.
SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Thank you, Mr. President.
And I would just note the president's leadership has been remarkable during this crisis. We have had a whole-of-government response -- local, state, federal. And when you see that kind of cooperation, it begins with the leadership in this body.
So, thank you for that. Mr. President, you make our jobs a lot easier.
You made an important point that when we deal with safety, we can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety that impact the lives of our loved ones, our family members. And I think you make a really important point on that, Mr. President. That is the motto of your presidency -- the best and the brightest, the most intelligent coming into these spaces.
I want to take a moment and extend my condolences to the families of the loved ones. We commit to them that we are going to get to the bottom of this investigation not in three years, not in four years, but as quickly as possible, with the NTSB, who is here today, as well as the FAA.
[11:40:13]
What happened yesterday shouldn't have happened. It should not have happened. And when Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination. That didn't happen yesterday. That's not acceptable.
And so we will not accept excuses, we will not accept passing the buck. We are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again.
And again, I want to thank you for your leadership, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
DUFFY: And I appreciate the confidence you've placed in me. Thank you.
TRUMP: Pete, would you like to say something, please?
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, thank you, Mr. President. Again, I want to echo what the transportation secretary said about -- about your leadership. From the moment we found out about this, we were in contact with the White House trying to determine exactly what happened. I would echo it as well, no excuses. We're going to get to the bottom of this.
We, first and foremost, from the Defense Department, want to pass our condolences to the 64 souls and their families that were affected by this. Never should happen. And certainly, the three service members, the three soldiers -- a young captain, staff sergeant, and the CW2, Chief Warrant Officer, on a routine annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things, it does routine things on the regular basis. Tragically, last night, a mistake was made.
And I think the president is right, there was an -- some -- some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DOD and Army level. Army CID is on the ground investigating. Top- tier aviation assets inside the DOD are investigating, sir, to get to the bottom of it so that it does not happen again because it's absolutely unacceptable.
But I want to echo what the transportation secretary and you, Mr. President, said because it pertains to the DOD as well. We will have the best and brightest in every position possible. As you said in your inaugural, it is colorblind and merit-based, the best leaders possible, whether it's flying Black Hawks and flying airplanes, leading platoons, or in government. The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department, and we need the best and brightest, whether it's in our air traffic control or whether it's in our generals or whether it's throughout government.
So thank you for your leadership and courage on that, sir, and we'll stand by you on it. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. J.D., please?
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership.
I just want to reemphasize something the president said and you've heard from the Secretary of Transportation and of Defense -- there really was a whole-of-government response. We were all on the phone, we were all communicating yesterday trying to get to the bottom of this immediately, but also try to communicate with the American people about what happened.
Something the president said that I think bears reemphasizing -- which is that when you don't have the best standards in who you're hiring, it means, on the one hand, you're not getting the best people in government, but on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there.
And I think that is a core part of what President Trump is going to bring and has already brought to Washington, D. C., is we want to hire the best people because we want the best people at air traffic control and we want to make sure we have enough people at air traffic control who are actually competent to do the job.
If you go back to just some of the headlines over the past 10 years, you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but they were turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump's leadership because safety is the first priority of our aviation industry.
Thank you, Mr. President. TRUMP: Thank you -- thank you, J.D.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: On -- on DEI and the claim that you've made, are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?
TRUMP: It just could have been. We have a high standard, we've had a higher -- much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brain power, you have to go by psychological quality. And psychological quality is a very important element of it. These are various -- very powerful tests that we've put to use and they were terminated by Biden, and Biden went by a standard that's -- exist -- the exact opposite.
So we don't know, but we do know that you had two planes at the same level. You had an air -- a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn't have happened. And we'll see. We're going to look into that and we're going to see, but certainly, for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest, we want somebody that's psychologically superior, and that's what we're going to have.
[11:45:06]
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yes, please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you mentioned at the top of the briefing that there were several Russian nationals on -- on the flight.
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: Will the U.S. government be willing to tra -- to facilitate the transfer of their remains, considering the fact...
TRUMP: Yes, we will.
QUESTION: ... there is no direct air travel between the two countries?
TRUMP: We've already been in contact with Russia, and the answer is yes, we will facilitate.
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is getting worse, even though President Joao Lourenco has been mediating the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Con -- because he wants to bring peace and stability. The situation is really bad right now. I want to hear from Mr. President if you have any plan in the future to bring peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
TRUMP: Well, you're asking me a question about Rwanda, and it is a very serious problem, I agree. But I don't think it's appropriate right now to talk about it. But it is a very serious problem.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: We don't even yet know the names of the 67 people who were killed, and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control, and seemingly, the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?
TRUMP: No, I don't think so at all. I don't think where the names of the people -- you mean the names on the -- of the people that are on the plane? You -- you think that's going to make a difference? They are...
QUESTION: Does it comfort their families to hear you blaming DEI policies?
TRUMP: They are a group of people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names, we can give you that. We'll be giving that very soon. We're in coordination with American Airlines. We're in coordination very strongly, obviously, with the military. But I think that's not a very smart question.
QUESTION: But are you blaming...
TRUMP: I'm surprised, coming from you.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for being here. Based on your analysis so far, do you have a sense of who was at fault? If it was the plane, the helicopter, air traffic control? And can you assure people that it is safe to fly in and out of D. C. ?
TRUMP: Well, I have given you the analysis, and the analysis was -- it was based on vision. You had a lot of people that saw what was happening. You had some people that knew what was happening. There was some warnings, but the warnings were given very, very late. You know, those warnings were given very late. It was -- almost as they were given, a few seconds later, there was a crash. It should have been brought up earlier.
But the people and the helicopter should have seen where they were going. I can't imagine people with 20/20 vision not seeing, you know, what's happening up there. Again, they shouldn't have been at the same height. You're going in -- in reverse directions, or sideway directions. Obviously, you want to be at different heights. I see it all the time
when I'm flying, I -- you have planes going in the opposite. They're always lower. We're higher, or they're -- so if somehow there's a screw up, there's not going to be a tragedy. It -- it'll be close, but you know, there's never going to be a tragedy if you're at a different elevation. For whatever reason, they were at the same elevation.
And also, from the American Airlines standard, he's along the track that every plane is along. You say, what was a helicopter doing in that track? It's very sad.
But visually, somebody should have been able to see and taken that helicopter out of play, and they should have been at a different height.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. You mentioned the Russians that were on board that plane. What other nationalities were on board that passenger (inaudible)?
TRUMP: There were a couple of others. We're going to be announcing it in about an hour. We have some very specific information. We're calling the countries. We've spoken to most of them, but there were some other countries represented.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Have you spoken to President Putin?
TRUMP: I have not, no.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Not about this.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President, a question, if I may. On your executive order, you've already issued an executive order you say will restore air -- aviation safety.
TRUMP: Right.
QUESTION: This crash happened after that. Was the executive order successful? And what more needs to change to keep people safe?
TRUMP: Well, you know, we issued it three days ago, and we were -- we're in the process of making those changes. This is -- this is something that should have been done a long time ago.
Actually, my original order should have never been changed, and I think maybe you wouldn't have had this problem. Maybe.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yes, please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes, thank you. We see, like, everyday life, that very often, the -- those diversity hires cause, sometimes, issues, as you just mentioned. So what plan do you have? Are we going to see some fire -- are you going to fire some of those diversity hire in the federal government? What's -- what plan do you have?
TRUMP: I would say the answer is yes. If we find that people aren't mentally competent -- you -- you see the language. The language is put out by them, and if you see that -- I'm not going to bore you by reading it again, but these are not people that be -- should be doing this particular job. They'd be very good for certain jobs, but not people that should be doing this particular job.
[11:50:05]
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President, you have today blamed the diversity elements, but then told us that you weren't sure that the controllers made any mistake. You then said, perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistakes.
TRUMP: Yes. It's all under investigation.
QUESTION: I understand that. That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.
TRUMP: Because I have common sense, OK? And, unfortunately, a lot of people don't.
We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level, when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, and they're all coming in different directions, and you're dealing with very high-level computer work and very complex computers.
And one of the other things I will tell you is that the systems that were built, I was going to rebuild the entire system. And then we had an election that didn't turn out the way it should have. But they didn't build the systems properly. They spent a lot of money renovating a system, spending much more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controllers, meaning the computerized systems.
QUESTION: So, was the problem...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: There are certain companies that do a very good job. They didn't use those companies. They used companies that should not have been doing it.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: No, I think -- I think this -- I think it's very important to understand that, for some jobs, and not only this, but air traffic controllers, they have to be at the highest level of genius, OK?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: I want to ask you about the ice skaters in a moment, because the U.S. Ice Skating Committee was affected.
But, first, if I can, the cited FAA text that you read is real, but the implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is demonstrably false.
It's been on the FAA's Web site...
TRUMP: Who said that, you?
QUESTION: No, I'm -- it's on the Web site, the FAA's Web site.
TRUMP: Oh. Oh.
QUESTION: It was there in 2013. It was there for the entirety...
TRUMP: Take a look. What I read...
QUESTION: It was there for the entirety of your administration too.
TRUMP: Nice and easy.
QUESTION: So, my question is, why didn't you change the policy during your first administration?
TRUMP: I did change it. I changed the Obama policy.
And we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in, and he changed it. And then, when I came in, two days, three days ago, I signed a new order, bringing it to the highest level of intelligence, OK?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: It was on the Web site.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Quiet. Quiet.
QUESTION: Welcome back.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
QUESTION: Welcome back to the -- I'm sorry.
QUESTION: You mentioned that vision was the -- probably the problem that was at issue in this crash. There's been some reports that the -- one of the pilots in the
helicopter may have been using night-vision equipment. Is there any indication?
TRUMP: I heard that. We don't know. You will -- we're going to know that pretty soon.
It may change your view plan if you do have the night vision, so it's very possible that could have happened. That would be -- that would be maybe a reason why you wouldn't actually see as well as on a clear night. You can see sometimes better without it.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: All right, a couple of more.
QUESTION: Mr. President, is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed? And does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly?
TRUMP: (OFF-MIKE) What?
QUESTION: Is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed? And does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?
TRUMP: Well, sure. We want fast confirmations.
And the Democrats, as you know, are doing everything they can to delay them. They have taken too long. We're -- we're struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed, but we're struggling to get them out faster. We want them out faster.
It's a good question, actually. We have been pushing Sean. Everyone knows Sean for a long time. He got many, many Democrat votes, but they want to take as long as they can. They ask questions, like some of the questions that Peter would ask that were totally irrelevant and not very good questions, but they want to just keep it going.
They want to keep it going as long as possible. I was very honored, actually, that you got so many Democrat votes. That was really good. That was really good.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: When are trying to meet with the (inaudible) families? And second question, is it your impression that (inaudible) training that was done in that time?
TRUMP: The what?
QUESTION: The training that the helicopter was involved in, is it -- anything you can tell us about that?
TRUMP: You don't know. These are the things that will come up with the investigation. You don't know, but the helicopter obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a tragedy occurred.
Please.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: I have got a question about the...
TRUMP: No, go ahead, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
You have been critical of the current regulations, and you have called for big reforms at FAA. I'm curious, sir, what...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, I made the reforms, actually.
QUESTION: What is your message...
TRUMP: Three days ago, I made them.
QUESTION: Yes, sir.
What is your message, then, to the American public in the weeks and months ahead? Should they feel hesitant to fly? And if you could clarify perhaps something that the defense secretary said, when he said that this helicopter was on a continuity-of-government mission?
[11:55:06]
TRUMP: I don't know what that -- what that refers to.
But I -- they were practicing, they were -- they do that. They call it practicing, and they were -- and that's something that should be done. It's only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people, and that has to be in continuity, and that's what they referred to.
But it was a -- basically practice, and it was a practice that worked out very, very badly, OK?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... on his -- on his (inaudible), the first question, should people be hesitant to fly right now?
TRUMP: No, not at all. I would not hesitate to fly. I -- this is something that -- it's been many years that something like this has happened. And the collision is just something that we don't expect ever to happen again.
We are going to have the highest level people. We've already hired some of the people that you've already hired for that position, long before we knew about this -- I mean, long before. From the time I came in, we started going out and getting the best people because I said it's not -- it's not appropriate, what they're doing. I think it's a tremendous mistake.
You know, they like to do things and they like to take them too far, and this is sometimes what ends up happening. Now, with that, I'm not blaming the controller, I'm saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane, being at the same level and going in opposite directions. It's not a positive.
But no, we're already hiring people -- no, safe -- flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we'll keep it that way.
Thank you all very much.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.
(CROSSTALK)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: That was President Trump speaking from the White House Press Briefing Room.
After a brief moment of silence, he pretty immediately made this political, blaming DEI and the Democrats on that midair collision, without providing evidence. He was a little bit all over the map, talking about DEI policies in the FAA, but then questioning the helicopter and the altitude and why it didn't, in his words, stop or make another move.
I want to go to our experts, including our CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, and CNN's Rene Marsh.
Pete, bottom line, are DEI policies at the FAA to blame?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I put my head in my hands, Pam, when the president said that. This is something that has been pushed by the far right for a few months now, that DEI policies are to blame in the degradation of safety in aviation in the United States.
But, frankly, the president is getting out ahead of his skis here. What he has said is not only unprofessional, unpresidential, inconsiderate of the status of this investigation, but, frankly, it is just unhinged that he could even say with any sort of certainty that diversity, equity, and inclusion policies had any part to play in this accident.
Remember that 67 people are dead. I hate to get so upset here, but this is something that investigators will really need to pick apart piece by piece. And that is going to take some really significant time. We're not even 24 hours after this crash. We're barely even 12 hours after this crash.
And he is saying with a lot of certainty that the blame is on DEI and the blame is in some ways on air traffic control and air traffic controller hiring. I have to feel for the air traffic controllers in the tower at Reagan
National Airport, who had to essentially sit there helplessly and make the call to first responders to say, we have a serious aircraft crash at 8:48 last night.
Let's parse out some more of this, because it's really significant here that President Trump also put some of the blame on Democrats. He said that Transportation Secretary, now former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg engaged in B.S.
You can use -- he actually used the full word live on television. The fact of the matter is that Transportation Secretary Buttigieg was very hard on aviation safety. There was a daylong safety stand down because of the rise of near-collisions on the runways at commercial airports nationwide that really took off in 2023.
I did a sit-down interview with Buttigieg. He was well-versed on the topic. He knew the points. He knew where the blind spots were. And the FAA and the Department of Transportation from the top down of the Biden administration was taking that problem very seriously.
Now, he also was incredibly hard on airlines and consumer protections. The big bottom line here is that there are so many vacancies in the federal government when it comes to aviation safety. There is no administrator of the FAA right now. President Trump has not put somebody forth for that.
There is no administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. The Trump administration needs to put somebody forth for that as well. Sean Duffy is the transportation secretary. He spoke articulately.
I will point out that I did not hear from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who was in the press room. That is really significant, especially during something like this.
