Shortly before 9:00 p.m. Wednesday, a U.S. Army helicopter collided with
an American Airlines passenger plane in the frigid night air above the
Potomac River near Washington, D.C.
The sky lit up in a massive fireball, and all 67 people onboard both
aircraft are presumed dead. (Recovery efforts are still underway.)
It is the most fatal accident in our nation’s skies in over 23 years.
So how did the President of the United States respond to this
unfathomable tragedy — which happened just a few miles from the White
House he now occupies?
Donald Trump blamed the disaster on “diversity.”
Some very recent history:
- On January 20, Trump was inaugurated for the second time.
- That same day, the former head of the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) resigned after intense pressure from Trump crony
Elon Musk (who was upset that the FAA had fined his company SpaceX for
violating rules around rocket launches).
- On January 21, Trump fired the director of the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
- That same day, Trump froze hiring of new air traffic
controllers. (Even though there is a profound shortage of controllers
nationwide, which has resulted in understaffed air traffic facilities
and overworked controllers — something Public Citizen has been urging
government leaders to address for years).
- Also on January 21, the Trump regime essentially disbanded the
federal Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which was created by
Congress in 1988 after the bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland.
- Trump never bothered to appoint an acting director of the FAA until yesterday — after the tragedy that claimed 67 lives.
It will take time for the National Transportation Safety Board to
identify exactly what went wrong. And while there is no indication that
Trump’s actions were responsible, his moves can only make air travel
less safe.
Here’s some more of what Trump had to say about efforts to bring even a modicum of diversity to our nation’s aviation workforce:
Trump alleged that the Obama administration had determined the FAA was “too white.” Of course it did no such thing.
“You have to go by brain power. You have to go by psychological quality.”
“We want somebody that’s psychologically superior.” (At the risk of
stating the obvious, it’s a major red flag when politicians who are
already saying patently racist things start tossing in words like
“superior.”)
Trump was asked how he could determine that diversity hiring had caused
the crash. He quickly — and snarkily — responded, “Because I have common
sense.”
Trump and his MAGA minions are doing more than blaming “DEI” for every
ill. They are weaponizing the racist, sexist proposition that white men
are always and automatically “meritorious” — despite the glaringly
obvious counterexample of their own administration — while anyone else
is inherently unqualified.
In another era, the kind of demagoguery we find ourselves living
through once again was embodied in a figurehead who came to be so
detested that his name is now shorthand for unhinged prejudice and
tyranny.
Joseph McCarthy’s ultimate downfall was in large part set off by an
impromptu remark from a U.S. Army lawyer — Joseph N. Welch — who found
himself genuinely shocked upon encountering McCarthy’s maniacal
extremism in person during a televised Senate hearing.
This is what Welch famously said to McCarthy:
“Until this moment, senator, I think I have never really gauged your
cruelty or your recklessness. ... Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
We invite you to join Public Citizen in a message for Donald Trump:
67
people lost their lives in the cold, dark sky above Washington, D.C.,
Wednesday night. It has been said that in times of tragedy, the
president has the duty — and privilege — to serve as our nation’s
Consoler In Chief. You have instead chosen, as you so often do, to
function merely as Complainer In Chief. “Diversity” did not cause this
tragedy. But your actions since taking office again certainly did
nothing to prevent it. So the American people are asking, “Have you no
sense of decency, sir?”
Click to add your name now.
Thanks for taking action.
For decency,
- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen