A number of Republicans have distanced themselves from President Donald Trump‘s claim that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration were to blame for a fatal plane crash in Washington, D.C. this week.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Friday via email.
The Context
Trump made eradicating DEI policies across the government a central pillar of his 2024 campaign and said Thursday, without evidence, that diversity within the FAA was responsible for a midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crewed by three.
There is no information suggesting the crash was caused by DEI initiatives and reporters have pointed out that some of the policies Trump blamed were in place during his first presidential term.
What To Know
Missouri Representative Sam Graves is the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which oversees the FAA in the House of Representatives. He told Politico in an interview that DEI was not to blame for Wednesday’s tragic crash.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with this particular accident. I have concerns about DEI within the FAA and for that matter all the transportation agencies, but I’ve had that concern now for years,” the Missouri lawmaker said.
Officials have recovered more than 40 bodies from the accident and said they do not expect to find any survivors.
Graves isn’t the only Republican who’s broken with Trump over his accusations.
In a video posted to X on Thursday, Republican Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee urged the public to “go a little slower” in blaming DEI for the crash.
“I’d like to warn everybody, a lot of folks are saying DEI and all this other stuff, and things are going on,” he said in the video. “Let’s find out. Almost 70 people lost their lives, it’s just a complete tragedy and we should remember their families and their friends in prayers.
“I think we ought to just go a little slower, maybe we’ll get there a little faster,” he added. “There’s plenty of avenues to research this and to study, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas also cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“I think we should wait to see the results of that investigation,” Cruz told HuffPost. “Obviously one or more people made a devastating and catastrophic mistake, but we should wait to examine the evidence and understand exactly what went on.”
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said he wasn’t aware of any information backing up Trump’s claims.
“I don’t know what happened last night,” Graham told HuffPost on Thursday. “I don’t know if there’s any DEI component to it or not. I’ve heard nothing about that.”
Trump, for his part, has doubled down on his claims despite acknowledging he had no evidence DEI was responsible for the plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
“On DEI and the claims you’ve made, are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring?” NBC‘s Mary Bruce asked Trump at a White House press briefing on Thursday. “And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”
“It just could have been,” the president said. “We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brainpower, you have to go by psychological quality and psychological quality is a very important element of it.”
Trump also sparred with NBC’s Peter Alexander after claiming that he “changed the Obama standards from very mediocre, at best, to extraordinary.”
“I put safety first,” Trump said. “[Former President Barack] Obama, [former President Joe] Biden and the Democrats put policy first.”
But Alexander pointed out the Trump administration had not in fact changed any of the standards put in place during the Obama administration, noting that the standards outlined on the FAA’s website hadn’t been updated since 2013.
Trump insisted he “changed the Obama policy” and that “we had a very good policy and then Biden came in and he changed it.”
What People Are Saying
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit back when Trump blamed him, in part, for the plane crash, writing on X: “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Duffy said of the crash at a Thursday news conference: “What I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.”
What Happens Next
Officials are still investigating the crash—the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. in two decades—and recovered two black boxes from the Potomac River on Thursday that they hope will shed light on what caused it.
The Associated Press also obtained an internal, preliminary report from the FAA saying only one air traffic controller was working at the time of the fatal collision, which the report said was “not normal.”
The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a news conference Friday afternoon to provide an update on its investigation.
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