In an informative session of the press on Thursday, President Trump criticized His predecessor for his administration of the Federal Aviation Administration and suggested, without evidence, that the agency’s diversity initiatives could be the fault of a fatal accident Between a passenger plane and an army helicopter in Washington, DC
“I put the security first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put the first policy,” Trump said. “The FAA website establishes that they include audition, vision, missing limbs, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.” Trump added that people in those categories would be “qualified” for controller posts, despite the fact that the agency’s statement does not say that.
The president continued: “Brilliant people have to be in those positions.”
It has been for a long time FAA The policy, even before, during and after Mr. Trump’s first mandate, includes people with disabilities in recruitment. However, there is no evidence that these initiatives have compromised air security or have any relationship with The accident Wednesday night. The cause of the collision remains under investigation.
Air traffic controllers must undergo wide training and meet the rigorous standards, including physical and mental aptitude evidence. They cannot have a history of mental disorders or physical conditions that may interfere with their duties, according to the United States personnel management officewhich is the main human resources agency for the federal government.
Before Trump assumed the position last week, there was a “diversity and inclusion” page on the FAA websitewhich declared that FAA had a “special emphasis on recruitment and hiring” of people with the Trump -cited disabilities list.
FAA has a variety of roles beyond air traffic controllers, and its website does not indicate that these hiring would be eligible for air traffic controlle positions.
In addition, politics has been on the FAA website since at least February 2013even in everything Trump’s first term. The policy page was recently eliminated from the website, Show Archives.
The head of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, which is the union of drivers, said in A letter To its members that at this time would be “specular premature on the root cause of this accident.”
Federal researchers have also said that it is too early to determine the cause or what factors may have contributed to the accident. It was the first important Crash to the commercial airline in the United States since 2009.
When a journalist asked him how he could conclude that diversity had something to do with the accident, Mr. Trump replied “,”Because I have common sense“
Mr. Trump was also asked why the “Diversity and Inclusion” policy was not changed on the FAA website throughout its first administration. He said: “I changed it. I changed Obama’s policy, and we had a very good policy. And then Biden entered and changed it.” It is not clear precisely what policy he was referring to.
The records show that the initiatives destined to expand the workforce existed under the first mandate of President Trump, including a program Launched in 2019 that aimed to recruit and train people qualified with disabilities, including veteran, for racing in air traffic operations.
This month, President Trump signed A memorandum Entitled “Keep the Americans safe in aviation”, which directed the FAA to end all the diversity, equity and inclusion or initiatives ofi. He issued similar orders throughout the federal government.
In response to Mr. Trump’s claims on Thursday, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in A publication in X“As families cry, Trump should lead, not lie. We put security first, we conducted nearby calls, we grew air traffic control and had zero deaths of shocks from commercial airlines of millions of millions of flights on our clock.”
Nick Daniels, head of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, said: “Highly trained and qualified air traffic controllers in the United States do incredible job every day keeping passengers and the load of the nation in motion in motion Sure and efficient to its destinations.
CBS News contacted FAA about Mr. Trump’s comments about its hiring practices, but the agency declined to comment.
Laura Doan
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