Politics
WATCH: Trump Rips CNN’s Kaitlan Collins During Contentious WH Briefing
President Donald Trump didn’t hold back when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him with what he called a “not very smart question” during a White House briefing on the deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport.
The crash—an unprecedented disaster involving an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter—left no survivors. With 67 lives lost, it marks the deadliest air tragedy in the country since 2001.
During the press conference, Collins pushed Trump on his remarks linking the crash to Democrat-led policies, DEI initiatives, and air traffic control issues.
“You don’t even yet know the names of the 67 people who were killed,” Collins said. “And you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don’t you think you’re getting ahead of the investigation right now?”
Trump wasn’t having it.
“No, I don’t think so at all,” he responded. “I don’t think with the names of the people—you mean the names of the people that are on the plane—you think that’s going to make a difference? They are a group of people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names, we can give you that. We’ll be giving that very soon.”
“We’re in coordination with American Airlines. We’re in coordination very strongly, obviously, with the military. But I think that’s not a very smart question. I’m surprised coming from you,” Trump added.
WATCH:
Collins, known for sparring with Trump, once again found herself at odds with the president.
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Trump said Thursday during his briefing. “I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary.”
“You remember that. Only the highest aptitude. They have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there,” he continued.
“When I arrived in 2016, I made that change very early on, because I always felt this was a job that, and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence, and we didn’t really have that. And we had it. And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before,” the president stated.
“Their policy was horrible,” Trump added, “and their politics was even worse.”
The aircraft, American Eagle Flight No. 5342, a regional jet, was en route from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members onboard.
The president also criticized Pete Buttigieg, who served as Secretary of Transportation under Biden’s administration. “He was a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his city into the ground, and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bullsh*t.”
Trump further accused Buttigieg of ruining the Department of Transportation with his emphasis on diversity, saying he “ran it into the ground with his diversity.”
