Vice President JD Vance appeared to walk back President Donald Trump’s persistent claims that “DEI” policies could be to blame for last week’s deadly D.C. plane crash after the Army released the final pilot’s name.
Vance told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday he and Trump believed the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies helped cause a staffing shortage among air traffic controllers, potentially leading to the crash between an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people.
But when asked about Trump’s repeated suggestions that air traffic controllers were hired because of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Vance demurred. None of the air traffic controllers have been named and the Army on Saturday released the name of the third person aboard the Black Hawk helicopter, a female pilot whose family initially objected to disclosing her identity.
“So the president’s been very clear about this,” Vance said. “This is not saying that the person who was at the controls is a DEI hire. But let’s just say, first of all, we should investigate everything, but 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.”
Trump said during a meandering press conference last week that the air traffic controllers on duty at Reagan National Airport last week “just could have been” the product of diversity hiring. When asked how he could support his statement, given that officials had just launched an investigation, Trump said it was because he “had common sense.”
Despite Trump saying unprompted during a meandering press conference last week that the air traffic controllers on duty at Reagan National Airport last week “just could have been” the product of diversity hiring.
Vance then tried to claim it was only the media who helped propagate the diversity issue, despite the Trump administration’s repeated assault on such policies since taking office last month.
“It’s so funny to me the media has picked up on this,” Vance said. “Not you, of course, Maria, but others have picked up on this. The president made 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.”
On Friday, Trump posted multiple screenshots laying blame on the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity policies—which remained on its website throughout his first term.
“This is just one reason why our Country WAS going to hell!!!” he wrote.
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