'Excuse me': Trump gets snippy with reporter as he doubles down on DEI claim
President Donald Trump got snippy with reporters Friday afternoon who questioned his claims that diversity programs contributed to a mid-air collision this week that killed 67 people in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to reporters while signing another executive order that will usher in 25% trade tariffs on all imports coming in from Mexico and Canada, Trump doubled down on his claim.
"I was right on all of it," he said, "but they'll still do an investigation just to check it out."
ALSO READ: Tears turn to anger at Capitol as Trump blames DEI for American Airlines crash
"This was all caused by bad rules, regulations and other things by [President Joe] Biden," Trump repeated. "The Biden administration — and when you look at the way they ran things, in fact, if you look, we hired — one of the first things I told them to do, I said, get talented people in those, in those beautiful towers overlooking runways. You better get them in there fast, because we don't have people there that are qualified."
Trump made large staff cuts at federal agencies responsible for aviation oversight. One was removing the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, but he also eliminated all the members of a key aviation security advisory group.
The Federal Aviation Administration was another place where Trump ushered in his shake-up. Tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk has feuded with the top FAA team for issuing fines to his SpaceX for violating airspace regulations. Those top two employees quit on Jan. 20, leaving the department without leadership.
"You knew that because planes were landing very, very late. They were circling all over the place. We had people that didn't know what the hell they were doing," claimed Trump.
The reporter attempted to fact-check his statements from the government agencies conflicting with his account and Trump appeared to become agitated.
"And if you look, excuse me, and there are other — excuse me, excuse me," Trump snipped. "They, uh, we have to have the best people, the smartest people, the sharpest people as control tower experts. And that's what they have to be. They have to be experts, and they have to be very smart. And we didn't have our best. And if you read the quote that I read yesterday at the news conference, it talked about people that were psychologically injured, were okay, and people that had lots of problems were — okay? I'd read it again if you'd like me to, but I don't think I have to waste your time."
See the video below or at the link here.
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