In the wake of President Trump’s Thursday press conference on the deadly and tragic mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), CBS senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe decried Trump for “jumping to conclusions” by saying diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs may have played a role in the incident. But near the end of his segment, O’Keefe started spewing a conspiracy theory that Trump was having secret calls with Russia dictator Vladimir Putin.
An anchor for CBS San Francisco, Elizabeth Cook was hosting the network’s CBS 24/7 coverage of the press conference and crash recovery efforts when she asked about Trump’s DEI comments: “Has there been any reaction to the President's comments during this press conference about DEI policies playing a role in this?”
O’Keefe seemed to slightly annoyed with the question since he initially responded with: “Well Elizabeth, it wrapped up at the top of the hour so it is hard to know.” He then pivoted to decrying Trump’s confidence that DEI was an influence in the incident and going over a list of changes he had made to put an end to it in the federal government:
What he is doing, in essence, and he said he was going to do this was, he’s jumping to conclusions before an investigation is even underway. And he said I'm going to do that because he didn't essentially want to wait several years until the investigation is over.
And what he's doing is essentially drawing attention to a series of steps he’s taken since he became president about nine days ago that are designed to end, curtail, stop funding all sorts of programs in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion, that he says have permeated the federal government needlessly over the last several years; and taken the night of the agencies and departments of their primary mission, which in the case of the FAA, it's safety. Which in the case of all the others, is up for debate.
O’Keefe said Trump had, “avoided questions about whether he was seeing something specific in who was involved in this, either the air traffic control tower or abort either of the aircraft, that would suggest that somebody in this was hired under one of those programs, or is a minority, or something else.”
The line about Trump knowing if someone involved “is a minority,” was the typical liberal media trope suggesting that Trump and those opposed to DEI were simply racists.
“But that appeared to be what he was inferring and then began to back off of it throughout the news conference, suggesting instead that,’ look, mistakes were made and we will have an investigation,’” O’Keefe added.
Later on in his live shot, O’Keefe did the exact same thing that he whined about Trump doing: “jumping to conclusions.”
When noting that the Trump administration had been in contact with Russian officials about repatriating the bodies of the Russian nationals onboard the plane, O’Keefe baselessly accused Trump of having secret phone calls with Putin, possibly even before becoming president again:
Notably during the briefing, he was asked, have you talked to President Vladimir Putin about this and he very – brushed it aside and said, quickly, no I hadn’t talked to him, not about that. So, what’s unclear is whether, in fact, there’s been a conversation at all since he became president between Trump and Putin, or if he is referring to something that has not yet been confirmed that may have happened during the transition where the two of them may have spoken.
O’Keefe further pushed his conspiracy theory:
This is one of the more intriguing aspects of his new presidency, to what extent is he in touch with the Russian leader? He may have inadvertently told us there has been a conversation that had not been officially read out.
His comments were essentially a continuation of the Russia Collusion Hoax the liberal media tried to push during his first term in office.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CBS News 24/7
January 30, 2025
12:17:12 p.m. Eastern(…)
ELIZABETH COOK: Has there been any reaction to the President's comments during this press conference about DEI policies playing a role in this?
ED O’KEEFE: Well Elizabeth, it wrapped up at the top of the hour so it is hard to know. What he is doing, in essence, and he said he was going to do this was, he’s jumping to conclusions before an investigation is even underway. And he said I'm going to do that because he didn't essentially want to wait several years until the investigation is over.
And what he's doing is essentially drawing attention to a series of steps he’s taken since he became president about nine days ago that are designed to end, curtail, stop funding all sorts of programs in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion, that he says have permeated the federal government needlessly over the last several years; and taken the night of the agencies and departments of their primary mission, which in the case of the FAA, it's safety. Which in the case of all the others, is up for debate.
He would not say. He was asked, and also avoided questions about whether he was seeing something specific in who was involved in this, either the air traffic control tower or abort either of the aircraft, that would suggest that somebody in this was hired under one of those programs, or is a minority, or something else. But that appeared to be what he was inferring and then began to back off of it throughout the news conference, suggesting instead that,’ look, mistakes were made and we will have an investigation.’
We should point out a few things. He said there will be a systematic investigation involving the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board, which we are expecting to hold its first news briefing in about 90 minutes or so, and the Defense Department, and then proceeded to sort of engage in what has been a years, if not decades long debate, across parties and presidencies, about whether the nation's skies are safe enough and whether those that ensure that they are have the manpower and equipment needed to avoid situations like this one.
We’ve heard, of course, for the last several years, Elizabeth, about close calls on runways from coast to coast and the concern that air traffic and controllers are distracted and not getting enough time off between shifts to avoid this kind of mistake, and to ensure that pilot training, both civilian and military, is proper so this kind of thing is avoided.
What he didn't talk about, but the Defense Secretary did, is the idea that perhaps – not the idea, the reality that there are multiple military operations that go on over the skies of Washington at the same time that commercial aircraft is coming and going from Reagan National Airport.
If you live here in Washington, it is not uncommon on weekends and late at night, once the sun goes down, to hear low-flying helicopters over to our neighborhoods. And often people think what happened, are they looking for someone? You look up and realize it is and the Coast Guard helicopter or it is a military helicopter and they are doing low altitude training missions that they do because they like to use the Potomac River, which cuts between Virginia and D.C., and kind of come up the ranks of that river to the northwest over Georgetown and Georgetown University and up into suburban Maryland, circle around and head back down the river at low altitude while planes are going and coming and going from DCA. So, that is part of what may have gone on here.
In fact, this morning, the President's nominee for secretary of the Army conceded to senators during and confirmation hearing that perhaps they are going to have to reconsider holding military exercises at that low altitude over the skies of Washington if it interferes with civilian commercial aircraft coming and going from that large airport.
And what Kaitlyn was saying, it is a small place, it is popular, with a lot of people who want to be able to get in and out of Washington easily. But you’ve also got multiple military bases, the Coast Guard, the local and state police running those low altitude operations. And that may have been part of the problem here.
Whether DEI had anything to do with it is absolutely unclear at this point. But the President went there and suggested that the moves he’s been making in recent days, controversial, disruptive, as he promised, may be helping solve this mistake that was so tragic and deadly over the skies of Washington last night.
COOK: Yeah, it is important to keep repeating, Ed, that we still don't know exactly what led up to this mistake.
O’KEEFE: No.
COOK: The investigation is ongoing. I want to talk though about the victims. We understand there were some Russian nationals on that flight. Can you go over what the President said and how he plans to handle the victims’ families in this?
O’KEEFE: He confirmed that Russian nationals were on the flight. And we had heard from an skating association and the U.S. Figure Skating Association that, in fact, a number of passengers aboard the plane were coming from Wichita from training sessions that were held with younger skaters in the days after a figure skating championship that was held their over the last weekend.
He said that the U.S. government has been in touch with the Russian government about getting the Russian nationals back to Russia, should that be the ultimate resting place. And he also confirmed that there were nationals from other countries but he wouldn't say which ones and that information about them will be coming later.
Notably during the briefing, he was asked, have you talked to President Vladimir Putin about this and he very – brushed it aside and said, quickly, no I hadn’t talked to him, not about that. So, what’s unclear is whether, in fact, there’s been a conversation at all since he became president between Trump and Putin, or if he is referring to something that has not yet been confirmed that may have happened during the transition where the two of them may have spoken.
This is one of the more intriguing aspects of his new presidency, to what extent is he in touch with the Russian leader? He may have inadvertently told us there has been a conversation that had not been officially read out.
So, as often happens when he speaks, he’s established a series of new questions that we’re going to have to answer and introduced the concept that was not necessarily on the minds of those monitoring the aftermath of this, by suggesting that personal policy across the federal government may have been to blame, Elizabeth.
COOK: CBS News senior White House and political correspondent, Ed O’Keefe. Ed, thank you so much for being with us.
