The Daily Show host Jon Stewart criticized President Donald Trump and his team after they tried to blame the DC airline crash on diversity, calling out two of Trump's cabinet picks as examples of "DEI hires."
Salvage crews began clearing wreckage from the Potomac River on Monday after the tragic collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, which claimed 67 lives—the deadliest air disaster in over 20 years.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Trump came under fire for baseless claims he made during the same press briefing about "diversity" initiatives within the FAA bearing responsibility for the tragedy.
There is no indication or evidence whatsoever that diversity efforts within the federal workforce have impacted air safety; nonetheless, Trump said the FAA "is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, mental problems, and other mental and physical conditions under diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives spelled out on the agency's website."
Responding to Trump's remarks, Stewart referenced Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the former an ex-Fox News host and the latter a former cast member of The Real World.
Notably, Trump nominated Hegseth despite his limited qualifications, allegations of sexual misconduct, and history of alcohol abuse. Similarly, Duffy—like Hegseth—seems to have secured his position largely due to his pro-Trump rhetoric as a Fox News commentator.
Stewart said:
"There's a lot of reasons why the FAA is in a bad place but these guys would have you believe that the main problem is that somehow standards were lowered so that a Black person or a gay person gets the chance to land your plane even though the requirements to be an air traffic controller are the same."
"But by culture-warring this tragedy, Americans spent that night holding their breath that the pilot or the air traffic controller wouldn't be a woman or a Black person or in a wheelchair. What they’re trying to do is make the default setting on competence in America a white guy. That’s what this is: a reset to the factory default.”
“Because, of course, these two are there purely based on merit and smarts. It undercuts every Black person, person of color, woman, in this country that the job that they have, they don’t deserve.”
Stewart then criticized the Republican Party’s new “mantra” as leading to “brain-turning” moments of hypocrisy, then played a clip of Lara Trump claiming that Americans succeed “by merit and merit alone.”
He added:
“Yes, merit and merit alone, says RNC chairwoman Lara—hold on, let me get my glasses—Trump. It was a blind submission, never saw her name on the application.”
“That’s the irony of this whole thing. The people standing next to Trump on that terrible night, blaming DEI and trying to reinstall white guys as the only non-suspect pool of hires, are themselves DEI hires.”
You can hear what Stewart said in the video below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Many applauded Stewart's remarks.
Despite his remarks, Trump has yet to offer a plan—let alone a concept of one—to address the shortage of air traffic controllers.
In a White House memo, he claimed that on his second day in office he had "ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard.
The FAA has faced a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. Tennesse Garvey, a Black pilot with 22 years of experience, previously told NBC News that eliminating DEI initiatives could worsen the issue by limiting the pipeline of qualified candidates.
Garvey said there has "never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t," noting that "if there’s something wrong with aviation in America" it's not DEI that's the issue because "there are only 4% Black pilots operating within this space.”
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