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.
The president signed an executive order on Jan. 20 to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs” in federal agencies and required all federal employees with DEI roles to be placed on leave.
Trump posted to Truth Social Friday stating that the Army Black Hawk helicopter was flying at “too high” of an altitude. Doocy asked if Trump suggested that the helicopter may have crashed into the American Airlines commercial plane could have been done intentionally or if there was an error committed by the crew members.
“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 could have led to this collision and the other reasons for that are still being investigated and I will let that investigation play out,” Leavitt said.
The collision led to the deaths of 67 victims, with the plane consisting of 64 passengers and 3 crew members while the helicopter had 3 soldiers aboard.
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