VANCE DEFENDS TRUMP’S DEI REMARKS AFTER THE PLANE CRASH IN DC
Days after the plane crash in DC, Trump has made various comments, such as pointing fingers at the DEI as to why the crash happened.
"The president made it very clear that he wasn't blaming anybody, but he was being very explicit about the fact that DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short-staffed," Vance told Bartiromo, who asked whether Vance has any evidence that any of the staff working on Wednesday night were "DEI hires."
This was Vance's stand, and he stood by President Trump's comment linking diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices to the plane crash that killed everyone aboard.
Vance Backs Up Trump
JD Vance defended Trump's DEI (diversity, equity, inclusivity) comment in the context of the plane crash in DC that killed 67 people, leaving no survivors, and said that he was not blaming anyone in particular.
In this regard, Trump criticized the DEI practices, which led to air traffic controllers being short-staffed.
Vance said it's important to "investigate everything," adding, "Let's just say the person at the controls didn't have enough staffing around him or her because we were turning people away because of DEI reasons."
"There is a straightforward connection between the policies of the last administration and short-staffed air traffic controllers," Vance said.
Their statement blames the DEI policy, which has no connection to the plane crash in DC.
Vance Sets Everything Straight
Vance stood by Trump's comments linking diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices to the plane crash.
He stated, "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, and they're all coming in different directions, and you're dealing with very high-level computers, computer work, and very complex computers."
Trump also specifically called out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who defended the Biden administration's record with air safety, saying, "The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg—real winner, that guy, real winner—do you know how badly everything's run since he's run this Department of Transportation?" Trump said, adding, "He's a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground and is a disaster now."
Buttigieg had fired back at this statement in a post on the social platform X, "As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. 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."
A Misunderstanding of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The vice president and transportation secretary claimed that diversity hiring efforts had affected staffing levels among air traffic controllers. Still, there is no evidence that such efforts played a role in the plane crash in DC.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and JD Vance joined President Trump on Sunday in blaming diversity hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration for the midair collision of a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Washington last week.
"The person at the controls didn't have enough staffing around him or her because we were turning people away because of DEI reasons," Vance said in the news interview, using the abbreviations for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
"DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short-staffed — a scandal." Trump, without evidence, linked his long-running complaints about diversity hiring practices to the crash near Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The president quoted from the F.A.A. website, which he said had indicated that the agency was looking to hire people with disabilities.
No evidence suggests that diversity hiring programs contributed to the plane crash in DC on Wednesday night. Those programs, some of which started or continued under Trump's first term — followed the same aptitude, medical, and security standards for hiring candidates without disabilities.
Dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Clearly, Trump's statement is against the DEI policy, which has been evident as he issued a series of executive orders to remove the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government and the private sector.
"My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense - and these are policies that were absolute nonsense - throughout the government and the private sector," Trump said to the World Economic Forum after taking office for his second term.
In recent days, there has been much discussion surrounding Trump's orders related to DEI, making this topic one to watch.
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