'Despicable': Pete Buttigieg thrashes Trump for plane crash press conference rant

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit back on Thursday after President Donald Trump blamed him and assorted "diversity" initiatives for Wednesday night's deadly plane crash over Washington D.C.

During a press conference about the crash, Trump directly blamed Buttigieg for the crash despite having no evidence whatsoever to back up such a claim.

"Maybe this is the reason the FAA, which is overseen by secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner," Trump said. "That's the guy's a real winner. Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run? The Department of Transportation? He's 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 b------. The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation while he runs it, 45,000 people, and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity, so I had to say that it's terrible."

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Buttigieg came out swinging at Trump immediately after the president's rant and pointed out that Trump in his first week in office pushed out several aviation safety officials.

"Despicable," he wrote in response on X. "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. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again."