Political leaders clash over Trump linking diversity, equity and inclusion practices with collision that killed 67 people<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US political leaders clashed on Sunday over Donald Trump\u2019s controversial comments on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs following last week\u2019s aircraft collision over the Potomac<\/a> river in Washington DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe president weighing in while bodies were still being recovered, blaming this on DEI, and, when pressed, he has no evidence to suggest it, was absolutely stomach-turning,\u201d Virginia senator Tim Kaine told CNN\u2019s State of the Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaine said he had a suspicion that the president did not want to be asked questions about why he had \u201clet\u201d Elon Musk force the FAA administrator to resign and had scrapped an aviation safety advisory committee within the Department of Homeland Security before the crash occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, \u201che decided to have everybody chased down a rabbit hole of his DEI allegations with no evidence,\u201d Kaine added, referring to Trump\u2019s comments that diversity hiring had lowered standards at the FAA and had played a role in the crash that killed 67.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s war of DEI has become a signature of his first two weeks in office after he signed an executive order ending DEI offices and initiatives across the federal workforce, ended affirmative action enforcement for federal contractors, and ordered the cessation of \u201cillegal preferences and discrimination\u201d, consistent with enforcement of civil rights laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Trump said an FAA commitment to hiring people with disabilities was \u201cone reason why our Country WAS going to hell\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But on Sunday, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, told NBC\u2019s Meet the Press<\/a> that to say the crash \u201chas to do with the person\u2019s color of their skin or their gender, I think that\u2019s just poor leadership. And especially at a time where any president is supposed to be the consoler in chief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As investigators work to establish the sequence of events that led to the mid-air collision, Kelly said: \u201cIt\u2019s often not one thing that causes a major aviation accident like this.\u201d Trump, he added, did not have \u201cthe appropriate information. And he clearly does not have the information in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n JD Vance said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures, stood by Trump\u2019s remarks linking DEI hiring practices to the crash. He said Trump was not \u201cblaming anybody\u201d in particular but that DEI practices had led to air traffic controller shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe president made very clear that he wasn\u2019t blaming anybody, but he was being very explicit about the fact that DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short-staffed. That is a scandal. Thankfully, it\u2019s a scandal that the president has stopped,\u201d Vance told Fox News\u2019s Maria Bartiromo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance said it was important to \u201cinvestigate everything\u201d, adding: \u201cBut let\u2019s just say the person at the controls didn\u2019t have enough staffing around him or her because we were turning people away because of DEI reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a very direct connection between the policies of the last administration and short-staffed air traffic controllers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has been reported that one air traffic controller was on duty at Reagan National airport when the crash occurred on Wednesday evening \u2013 and not two as typically on duty to direct airplanes and helicopters at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n US transportation secretary Sean Duffy told CNN that air traffic control staffing shortages dated to the Obama administration when \u201csome DEI principles that were brought into air traffic control\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n