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'Without Evidence', Media Knock Trump Mention of DEI Hiring at Post-Crash Presser
With President Trump back in office, the hostile media have gone back to showing interest in presidential assertions made “without evidence”. This Trump coverage classic made its return as the media melted down over Trump calling out hiring practices at the FAA that placed a heavy emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In so doing, the media actually ignored a ton of evidence.
Most emblematic of this coverage is the most Trump-hostile network newscast, ABC World News Tonight (click “expand” to view full transcript):
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
1/30/25
6:47 PM
DAVID MUIR: Meantime tonight, President Trump coming before the cameras in The White House briefing room today, calling for a moment of silence. And then moments later, the president implying that DEI policies, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, may have contributed to the crash. Mary Bruce was in the briefing room.
MARY BRUCE: Tonight, with the recovery effort under way and the investigation only just beginning President Trump, without any evidence, blaming the diversity policies of his predecessors for the deadly crash.
DONALD TRUMP: A group within the FAA, another story, determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that, and to change it immediately.
BRUCE: The president accusing the previous administrations of hiring air traffic controllers based on diversity goals, not qualifications.
Are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?
TRUMP: It just could have been. We have a high standard. We've had a much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brain power.
BRUCE: But Trump also acknowledged he wasn't sure if the air traffic controllers made any mistakes. Former President Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responding, "Despicable," saying, "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 fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch." And David, tonight, President Trump is doubling down on these claims that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are to blame for this tragedy, saying it's, quote, “because I have common sense.” But again, he's presented no evidence and this investigation is only just beginning. David?
MUIR: Mary Bruce in the Briefing Room today. Mary, thank you.
So enamored was Muir of his line about Trump offering a moment of silence before going into the DEI stuff that he said it twice before even getting to the report. Muir tosses to Chief Biden Apple Polishing Correspondent Mary Bruce, who restored the “without evidence” line to White House coverage from its four-year sabbatical.
The new CBS Evening News didn’t do a report on the Trump press conference, but CBS News 24/7 Daily Report did, and here’s how anchor Linsey Reiser introduced Nancy Cordes for her dispatch from The White House:
REISER: CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes joins me now from The White House. Nancy, can you help put into perspective these claims that the president is making, without evidence, regarding DEI and why he’s making these declarations based on what he is calling common sense?
NBC Nightly News went the same route:
LESTER HOLT: Back now with the new backlash after President Trump asserted today, without providing evidence, that Democrats' diversity programs may have played a role in the midair crash. Garrett Haake now with that story.
…
GARRETT HAAKE: Suggesting, without evidence, that Democratic DEI policies at the FAA and military, which President Trump ended last week with an executive order, may have contributed to the midair collision.
The problem with “without evidence” is that it is an invitation to ignore evidence already on the record. Over the course of monitoring the network newscasts, we found six different mentions of air traffic controller shortages or of air traffic controllers being tasked with performing two roles simultaneously.
With Trump mentioning the DEI stuff front and center, the media have an excuse with which to mention staffing issues at the FAA- but in a manner that is adversarial to Trump: by Trumpwashing this story and making it about Trump’s remarks rather than the context of what was said.
The truth is that there is a body of evidence to suggest there may, in fact, be something to what Trump is saying- evidence that was in the public domain long before Trump said what he said. In fact, multiple conservative publications reported on this well before the crash.
The Disastrous Initiative to Hire Air Traffic Controllers Based on Diversity, Not Talent, reported The Daily Signal on June 27th, 2018, detailing the beginnings of the imposition of diversity hiring in the FAA. Walter E. Williams wrote:
In 2013, President Barack Obama-appointed FAA Administrator Michael Huerta deemed that these hiring standards had not produced a pleasing mix of air traffic controllers when it came to race and sex. He announced plans to “transform the [FAA] into a more diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects, understands, and relates to the diverse customers” it serves.
The FAA discarded its longtime use of the difficult cognitive assessment test and implemented instead a new, unmonitored take-home personality test—a biographical questionnaire. Among the questions asked are: “The number of high school sports I participated in was … ” “How would you describe your ideal job?” “What has been the major cause of your failures?” “More classmates would remember me as humble or dominant?”
In other words, the FAA opened air traffic control training to “off-the-street hires”—any English-speaking citizen with a high school diploma—despite the fact that most high school diplomas are fraudulent documents.
Biden FAA Pushing Diversity Hiring As Air Traffic Control System Falls Into Total Disarray, reported Daily Caller on October 27th of 2023. This embedded Truth from Gregg Re eerily prescient:
two private planes just collided on takeoff at a major international airport in Houston (hobby). not a "near miss," an actual collision.
pilot claims catastrophic ATC error. we are heading towards a major disaster. in positive news, FTC just announced plan to 'diversify' ATC pic.twitter.com/khyafe46hb
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) October 25, 2023
Is DEI risking air traffic control safety?, reported UnHerd on January 14th, 2024. Laurel Duggan wrote:
Air traffic controllers are badly understaffed and overworked. As of June, 77% of ATC centres are understaffed, and it’s common for controllers to have mandatory overtime, 10-hour shifts and 6-day workweeks. Controllers are manning multiple frequencies at once and often don’t have the bandwidth to monitor runways as effectively as one would hope.
Diversity in the Skies: FAA’s Controversial Shift in Air Traffic Controller Hiring, published View from the Wing on January 29th, 2024. The report lists several Obama administration changes to criteria that prioritized diversity.
There is an entire body of reporting that could be reasonably described as evidence in support of statements asserting that the primacy of DEI as a hiring criteria at the Federal Aviation Administration undermined national air travel long before the crash. The media willfully ignored this body of work in order to rush to score their cheap “without evidence” hit against Trump.
Some might even say they did so…without evidence.
Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective networks on Thursday, January 30th, 2025:
CBS NEWS 24/7 DAILY REPORT
1/30/25
7:17 PM
LINDSEY REISER: President Trump Thursday took aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to suggest, without evidence, they could be responsible for the deadly plane crash near Washington.
DONALD TRUMP: The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring plan which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and effective travel. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I think it’s just the opposite.
REISER: CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes joins me now from The White House. Nancy, can you help put into perspective these claims that the president is making, without evidence, regarding DEI and why he’s making these declarations based on what he is calling common sense?
NANCY CORDES: Sure, Lindsey. So he claimed repeatedly in that press conference, and then later, in the Oval Office, that he had increased the standards at the FAA for air-traffic controllers, when he was president during his first term, but that they were much lower during the Obama years, and that Biden then lowered them again. We have been asking The White House all day for any proof that that is actually the case- that he somehow raised the standards, because other officials we have been speaking to say that isn’t the case. The White House provided us with a link to a class action lawsuit that was filed back in 2016, by some individuals who said that the Obama FAA had changed the entry test for air-traffic controllers, to make it more difficult for white people to get accepted into the pool. I don't know the status and validity of that lawsuit, but what I can tell you, is that they weren’t able to provide us with any actual direct evidence that he had overhauled the standards for air-traffic controllers, when he was president, and if that had actually happened, that would be something that is pretty easy to do. What experts tell me is that actually, the standards for air-traffic controllers have always been quite high, Lindsay, and it requires 2 to 4 years of training. About half of the individuals who start the program end up dropping out along the way…
REISER: Hmmmm.
CORDES: …and so the biggest challenge when it comes to air-traffic controllers usually hasn’t been the standards, it has been a shortage, trying to find enough people willing to go through all of that training.
REISER: Following the collision, President Trump announced a new acting FAA administrator. What do we know about who he chose and what their job will be?
CORDES: Right. His name is Chris Rocheleau. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran, he actually worked at the FAA for 20 years, so he’s got a lot of experience there, and they had to move quickly because there was something of a leadership vacuum at the FAA. The former administrator actually stepped down on the same day that President Trump was inaugurated, last Monday. He had several more years left on his term, but he had come under fire in recent months by a close Trump ally, Elon Musk, so he probably saw the writing on the wall, assumed that Trump would remove him once he came into office, so he beat him to the punch and left, but that meant that at the top of the FAA, you really had no clear line of command, and obviously, the FAA is going to be quite busy in the coming days and weeks.
REISER: And we know that this is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's second day. What will he be tasked with?
CORDES: Well, he is getting a lot of feedback from Members of Congress, from The White House, about things that people are concerned about, that they think may have contributed to this accident, that he will likely have to examine, including the possibility of congestion at Reagan National Airport, the possibility that he may have to work with the Pentagon to revamp the rules for helicopters in the vicinity of Reagan National, all of this at a time when he is still figuring out how to get to his office, and who the people are who are surrounding him because, as you pointed out, he’s been on the job less than 48 hours.
REISER: Nancy Cordes, thank you.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
1/30/25
6:46 PM
LESTER HOLT: Back now with the new backlash after President Trump asserted today, without providing evidence, that Democrats' diversity programs may have played a role in the midair crash. Garrett Haake now with that story.
GARRETT HAAKE: Tonight in a White House news conference that began with a somber moment of silence, President Trump pivoting from prayer --
DONALD TRUMP: I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation.
HAAKE: To politics.
TRUMP: I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first.
HAAKE: Suggesting, without evidence, that Democratic DEI policies at the FAA and military, which President Trump ended last week with an executive order, may have contributed to the midair collision.
TRUMP: We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak. Who they are. What matters- intellect, talent.
HAAKE: At one point, going after Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
TRUMP: He's got a good line of bullshit. He's run it right into the ground with his diversity.
HAAKE: But reporters pressing the president. What evidence did he have that diversity hiring caused the crash?
TRUMP: It just could have been.
HAAKE: And later, as he signed an order to review FAA hiring decisions the last four years.
REPORTER: Are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?
TRUMP: It may have. I don't know. Incompetence may have played a role. We'll let you know that.
HAAKE: The President echoed by the Vice President and the Defense Secretary.
JD VANCE: We want the best people at Air Traffic Control.
PETE HEGSETH: The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department.
HAAKE: But the comment sparking fierce backlash. Buttigieg posting, “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first.” The top Senate Democrat responding.
CHUCK SCHUMER: For the President of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified, it just turns your stomach.
HAAKE: The president also naming a new acting FAA administrator today. That position had been vacant since Inauguration Day. Lester.
HOLT: All right. Garrett Haake. Thanks.
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