‘Hellish,’ ‘Unhinged’; CNN SEETHES Over Trump Remarks at Briefing on Plane Crash

Curtis Houck
January 31st, 2025 11:55 AM

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CNN was unglued late Thursday morning and early afternoon over President Donald Trump’s remarks at the White House press briefing on the deadly mi-air collision over the Potomac River with aviation correspondent Pete Muntean — who had otherwise been invaluable in his analysis and reporting — joining other unsurprising characters in channeling now-former colleague Jim Acosta.

Weekday morning CNN Newsroom host Pamela Brown huffed immediately after that Trump “pretty immediately made this political, blaming DEI and the Democrats on that mid-air collision without providing evidence” and “was a little bit all over the map talking about DEI policies and the FAA, but then questioning the helicopter and the altitude and why it didn't, in his words, stop or make another move.”

Muntean, a private pilot himself and previous stints in local news, huffed he “put my head in my hands, Pam, when the President said that” and sounded like Brian Stelter or Donie O’Sullivan in hurling disgust at “the far right” for having “pushed” back against DEI policies.

 

 

“But frankly, the President is getting out ahead of his skis here. What he has. Said is not only unprofessional, unprofessional, unpresidential, inconsiderate of the status of this investigation, but frankly, it is just unhinged that he could even say with any sort of certainty that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies had any part to play in this accident,” Muntean exclaimed.

With his face growing rosy red, he channeled the classic sanctimonious CNN arrogance by saying “I hate to get so upset here” about Trump suggesting DEI policies were to blame.

Muntean next went to defending the honor of Biden Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as if he were an unofficial Buttigieg lackey. He, of course, blamed the lack of top officials having been in place across federal aviation agencies (nevermind that Trump hasn’t even had his entire Cabinet confirmed yet) (click “expand”):

He — he said that transportation secretary, now former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg engaged in B.S. You can use — te actually used the full word live on television. The fact of the matter is that Transportation Secretary Buttigieg was very hard on aviation safety. There was a day long safety stand down because of the rise of near collisions on the runways at commercial airports nationwide. That really took off in 2023. I did a sit down interview with Buttigieg. He was well versed on the topic. He knew the points. He knew where the blind spots were, and the FAA and the Department of Transportation from the top down of the Biden administration, was taking that problem very seriously. He also was incredibly hard on airlines and consumer protections. The big bottom line here is that there are so many vacancies in the federal government when it comes to aviation safety. There is no administrator of the FAA right now. President Trump has not put somebody forth for that. There is no administration of the Transportation Safety Administration. The Trump administration needs to put forth somebody for that as well. Sean Duffy is the transportation secretary. He spoke articulately. I will point out that I did not hear from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who was in the press room. That is really significant, especially during something like this. It is a huge tragedy, and I do not use that word lightly.

Brown closed her show with the disgustingly disingenous take that they’re most concerned about the “67 families who are mourning because of this midair collision, who are looking for answers, who don't want politics.”

Earth to Pamela: What does CNN do seemingly seconds after learning of a mass shooting. Hint, it’s an eight-letter word that starts with a “p” and ended the previous graph.

Muntean resurfaced minutes later on Inside Politics as he claimed without evidence that Trump’s rampant speculation of possible causes was making life even more “hellish” for the families of those lost and could muddy the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation.

 

 

He shared this is personal for him as he lost his mother in a different crash:

And so, for the families that are going through hell right now, and I know this because I've lost my mother to a plane crash, this made it even more hellish. What was that? I just cannot — I'm sorry to get angry, but what is the point of — of making some sort of speculative, wide ranging, rudderless claim about anything about hiring at the FAA? 

He did explain the challenge across multiple administrations of a major air traffic controller shortage, but again sucked up to his friends on the left by saying “that is something that the Biden administration, to their credit, really, tried to shore up.”

Speaking of stating things without evidence, Muntean disgustingly asserted he “cannot imagine after” having listened to Trump that anyone would want to be an air traffic controller.

He also suggested without evidence that safety wasn’t paramount in the mind of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, screeching that he had released a statement about DEI policies less than two hours before the crash.

After conceding it felt as though the industry and government had been tempting fate for years with one near miss after another, he referred to Trump as though he were a snake by blasting him for “slink[ing] in and — and provide his own narrative of this.”

Bash also engaged in ugly speculation without evidence:

Having lectured Trump during the briefing, former conservative reporter-turned-liberal Kaitlan Collins had her own gripes:

Chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny even seemed to blame Trump directly for the deadly incident:

If you’re showing the most passion in this story for attacking Trump, you’ve lost the plot.

To see the relevant CNN transcripts from January 31, click here and here.

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