WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital is in mourning. But in Trump’s Washington, rumors, racism and finger-pointing are as plentiful as tears.
“Sad day in D.C. My heart goes out to them,” a Capitol Police officer said as he passed a handful of congressional reporters Thursday. “Sad day.”
While Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are ramping up formal, bipartisan investigations into the tragedy, many Democrat’s sorrow turned to anger after President Donald Trump’s press conference Thursday morning where he blamed DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion policies — for the midair collision that claimed 67 lives Wednesday evening.
“I thought the president's press conference was disgusting,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told reporters in the basement of the Capitol. “The idea that the crash happened because the FAA hires non-white men is unconscionable, especially after he threw the FAA into chaos.”
While it didn’t garner much attention, the day after his inauguration last Monday Trump fired each member of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which Congress established in the wake of the bombing of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
Coupled with Elon Musk forcing former Federal Aviation Administration Chief Michael Whitaker out last week for allegedly fining SpaceX, Murphy said Trump and his advisors must be held accountable.
“He's in charge. This happened on his watch, and he has deliberately thrown the FAA into disarray in the first days of his administration. That may not have had anything to do with the crash yesterday, but it makes his statements at his press conference today even more alarming,” Murphy said. “We don’t know what happened, but for the president to claim that it's because the FAA hires women or Black people, it’s downright disgusting.”
When Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate’s Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, was asked if he agreed with Trump that DEI played a role in the collision, the Texas Republican evaded.
“I just finished conducting a briefing with the [National Transportation Safety Board] and the FAA. There’s an active investigation going on as to what went wrong. I think we should wait to see results in that investigation,” Cruz replied. “Obviously, one or more people made a devastating and catastrophic mistake, but we should wait to examine the evidence and understand exactly what went on that resulted in the loss of 67 lives last night.”
“Is that your advice to the president as well?” Raw Story asked.
Cruz stared blankly at Raw Story as elevator doors slowly closed on him and his aides.
Trump’s eyebrow-raising DEI claims caught many on Capitol Hill off guard.
"What do you make of that claim?" Raw Story asked freshman Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), the first Korean-American U.S. senator in the nation's history.
"I have to take a listen to it, so I'm not exactly sure what he said at this point,” Kim told Raw Story. “No, literally, I'm just hearing it.”
“But what do you make of speculation coming from the White House, you know, in the aftermath of a tragedy like this?” Raw Story pressed one of the newest members of the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee.
“Give me time to at least read it,” Kim said. “Okay?”
More senior Democrats didn’t need more time.
“There should be a full investigation to get the facts out, especially when the president in his press conference…seemed to be saying things that he then admitted saying things that he then admitted [were] just based on his feeling, not any briefings or things of that nature,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) told reporters just off the Senate floor Thursday morning.
While speculation abounds, even as first responders continue searching the Potomac River, Luján said a full-throated investigation is essential for the families of those lost on American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, as well as the three slain service members aboard the Black Hawk helicopter.
“The families who are no longer with us, that died last night, they deserve to know the truth. The American people deserve to know what happened, so that this doesn't happen again as well,” Luján said. “Families serving our country were lost too last night.”
Like many on the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, Luján’s still awaiting more details, but the New Mexico senator said Trump’s whirlwind of executive actions and attempts to upend the federal workforce may have contributed to the tragedy.
“What is clear is that they're throwing everything they can, which is contributing to the confusion and the chaos that is playing out right before our very eyes,” Luján complained to reporters just off the Senate floor.
Even as politics threaten to overtake the tragedy, at the Capitol, senators are also introspective in part because most of them fly in and out of Washington through the Reagan Washington National Airport a few times a month at a minimum.
“I started tracking the time I spend on airplanes,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) as they made their way to a closed-door Republican meeting Thursday. “And then I had to stop because it got so depressing.”
While the political class is unsettled by the crash in their second home’s backyard, lawmakers said they have no plans to avoid the airport that’s just a 15-minute ride to their offices at the Capitol.
“We haven't seen a disaster like this for many, many years,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) told Raw Story. “Accidents happen. We’ll see what it is.”
Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency remain set on slashing the federal workforce, even as The Associated Press reported a staffing shortage at Reagan National last evening.
That’s why Luján argued that Musk, Trump and other White House officials should hit pause and think about the real-world ramifications of their government-wide purge.
“The reason we need more air traffic controllers, a stronger system in America to prevent this from happening ever again,” Luján said. “And that's why it needs to be investigated if there is a lack of policy, if there are executive decisions that were made that contributed to something like that.”