Aviation expert Pete Muntean didn't hold back in his assessment of President Donald Trump's assertion that diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices were to blame for the mid-air collision over the Potomac River that presumably killed 67 people.
CNN's Jake Tapper asked Muntean, "The investigation of tragedies like this usually takes months, if not years — is there any evidence that hiring practices that President Trump keeps referring to, DEI, played any role in anything that happened?"
"It is a totally baseless and, frankly, unhinged claim that the president made today that DEI could have had any factor in this case," Muntean said.
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Trump has insinuated that DEI hiring means overlooking the people who are most qualified for the job. However, a Human Resources consultancy group defines DEI hiring as "not simply about recruiting people from underrepresented backgrounds or with disabilities in an effort to tick off a box. Instead, inclusive hiring practices aim to level the playing field for all applicants in order to fight against recruitment bias and any form of discrimination."
Muntean continued, "We don't know much of the biographical information about those in the control tower who essentially had to watch helplessly and call 911 for the fire engines and the emergency response crews to come out here. DEI is really not even part of the conversation. This is something that the right has really latched on to for months leading up to this, and in fact, only an hour and 40 minutes before this crash took place, [Transportation Secretary] Sean Duffy's first act, his first press release, said that he was going to roll back DEI initiatives in aviation."
Muntean concluded, "It seems that this administration is not as focused on aviation safety, and is much more focused on DEI, what they call a 'woke' practice."