Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit back after President Trump criticized the Biden administration and diversity initiatives in the aftermath of a deadly midair collision outside Washington, D.C.
“Despicable. Trump shouldn’t be lying, but leading as families mourn. We put safety first. We reduced close calls. We grew Air Traffic Control. And we had zero commercial airline crashes on our watch,” Buttigieg wrote in a social media post.
“President Trump oversees now the military and FAA. His first act was to suspend and fire some key personnel that helped to keep our skies safe. It’s time for the President to show real leadership and explain how he plans to prevent it from happening again.”
Buttigieg made his comments just minutes after Trump ended a presser on the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter with an American Airlines plane near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The authorities say there were no survivors. Authorities believe that about 60 people were on the plane.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the White House Briefing Room, criticized his Democratic predecessors for not putting safety first. He also suggested that diversification initiatives had weakened the Federal Aviation Administration.
“I always put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats placed policy first. They put politics on a level no one had ever seen before, because it was at the lowest level. Their policy was terrible, and their political was even worse”, Trump told reporters in the White House’s briefing room.
The president called Buttigieg a “disaster.”
“He’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls‑‑‑,” Trump said. “Well, he runs it, 45,000 people, and he’s run it right into the ground with his diversity.”
At the press conference, other Trump administration officials echoed Trump’s claim that diversity initiatives have a weakening impact on systems.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the “era” of DEI at the Pentagon is over. Vice President Vance said that in recent years, “many hundred people have sued the government because they wanted to be air traffic control but were rejected because of their color.”
When asked how he knew diversity played a part in the crash, Trump said it’s because he uses “common sense.” He had earlier in the briefing emphasized that a cause for the crash hadn’t been determined.
Buttigieg, among others, criticized the remarks of the president as a politicization.
“We just experienced a tragedy and the President has rushed to politicize the situation — jumping to absurd conclusions and undermining the ongoing investigation.” “His comments were grotesque, outrageous, and he must apologize to the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said.
