Doocy Asks Press Sec If It Is ‘Safe To Fly Commercially’ As Trump Laments Hiring Process For Air Traffic Controllers

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Friday if it is “safe to fly commercially” as President Donald Trump criticized the hiring process for current air traffic controllers.

Trump said Thursday that air traffic controllers must be “geniuses” and promised to “restore faith in American air travel” during his first news conference following the deadly air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night. Leavitt said that the administration will “prioritize” that pilots and air traffic controllers are hired based on their “merit” and “skills” rather than physical attributes.

“If President Trump is telling us that air traffic controllers are staffed with unqualified controllers, these DEI hires who never should have been brought on, it’s not safe to fly commercially, is it?” Doocy asked.

“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,” Leavitt said. “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 and so the administration will continue to prioritize this.”

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Trump lamented the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s administrations. The president said the website prioritized hiring people with “severe disabilities” because they are “the most underrepresented segment of the workforce,” though there has been some dispute whether anyone with disabilities have had air traffic control positions.