Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov on Thursday went after Donald Trump for hosting a “campaign rally” amid “what should have been a somber occasion” as the president blamed diversity hiring efforts on the deadly midair collision in Washington, D.C. that left 67 people dead.
“These DEI policies were put in place in 2013, he had every opportunity through his first administration to revoke them if he thought they were terrible but he didn’t,” noted Tarlov, echoing a point made by NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander during Trump’s press briefing on the disaster.
The collision between a commercial passenger jet and a military helicopter arrived at a time when staffing at the Ronald Reagan National Airport air traffic control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” per a Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by The Associated Press.
“When you talk about staffing issues, sure, the control room is a problem. But you know what else is a problem? That there’s no head of the FAA,” said the host of “The Five,” who noted that the last FAA chief Michael Whitaker stepped down after Elon Musk tried to “push him out” for months.
She later continued, “We have no head of the Coast Guard and, they have in the first week in office, gutted this key Aviation safety advisory committee.”
Tarlov went on to declare that the president showed up with “one message” at the briefing: the midair collision “was DEI’s fault.”
“DEI is not a scapegoat for everything,” she said of the popular right-wing talking point.
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