Following the tragic mid-air collision at Reagan Washington National Airport, MSNBC seemed mostly concerned with its potential as fuel for demonizing President Trump. On Thursday’s episode of Chris Jansing Reports, Jansing dove directly into President Trump’s comments on the tragedy and took issue with him calling out the possible role DEI programs played, particularly their effort to hire people with “severe intellectual” and “psychiatric” disabilities. She even invited a former acting FAA administrator to shoot down Trump’s assertions, but he didn’t; because he oversaw them.
Standing near the accident scene, on the bank of the Potomac, Jansing huffed that “without evidence” Trump suggested “DEI policies from the previous Biden administration somehow played a role in the crash.”
She then cut to a video from the conference, in which Trump seemed to read from a New York Post article about how, “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website.”
That policy was indeed spelled out on the agency’s website, and, regardless of whether it was responsible for this particular accident, it was not exactly a policy to instill confidence in the current state of air travel in America.
Anyone who has actually flown a plane is acutely aware that when you take off or land, your life is in the hands of whoever is in that control tower. If there is reason to believe that the air traffic controller guiding your flight has a severe mental illness, or some sort of other severe impairment, that is, to say the least, not a comforting thought.
To address Trump’s point, Jansing interviewed former acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, a Biden appointee who actually bore some responsibility for the aforementioned DEI initiative. Jansing asked him directly for his response to Trump’s statement that “the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer mental or physical conditions, under a diversity hiring initiative.”
Nolen was then allowed to ramble on about his career-long devotion to safety, his approval of the leadership of the FAA and faith in the International Transportation Safety Board, and some words of condolence to those affected:
Look- let me just say, you know, my focus has been, across the arc of my career, about how to improve safety, how to improve, you know, the work that we do. And that's what I did during my time as acting FAA administrator. I was very proud and honored to do that. (…) We've had this incredible 16 year run of a really good safety record, worked very hard to drive down the number of close calls.
But he never actually answered the question, and Jansing just let that slide.
Whether or not it was the best move for Trump to make those comments in that way at that time, it is hard to rationally argue with the point. What happened Wednesday was a terrible thing for a great many innocent people, and whatever caused it in this case, if we don’t want it to happen again, a serious reevaluation of FAA hiring policies would seem a very good idea. There are lots of great things that people with severe disabilities can do in this world, but in a reality where we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, responsibility for the safe operation of an airliner is not at the top of the list.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s CHRIS JANSING REPORTS
01/30/2025
01:51 PM
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: TRUMP BASELESSLY BLAMES DEI POLICIES FOR DEADLY CRASH]
CHRIS JANSING: Today, just moments after President Trump offered his condolences and a moment of silence for the victims of the Potomac collision, he suggested, without evidence, that DEI policies from the previous Biden administration somehow played a role in the crash.
[Cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website. Can you imagine?
(...)
01:54 PM
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: TRUMP BASELESSLY CLAIMS DEI POLICIES TO BLAME FOR DEADLY MIDAIR COLLISION OVER POTOMAC]
JANSING: And joining us now is former acting director of the FAA, Billy Nolen.
Thank you for being here. And I wonder what your response is to President Trump suggesting that somehow they are active re-, the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer mental or physical conditions, under a diversity hiring initiative.
BILLY NOLEN (former acting FAA director): Well, thanks for having me. Look- let me just say, you know, my focus has been, across the arc of my career, about how to improve safety, how to improve, you know, the work that we do. And that's what I did during my time as acting FAA administrator. I was very proud and honored to do that.
I had some- some strong quality people. I commend the President for the announcement today of Chris Rocheleau who I've worked closely with- is a- is a wonderful leader- as the new acting administrator, which then gives the administration time to think about who will be that next leader, so-
But where we are, I want to just stop and take a moment to say I- you know- I offer my sincere sympathies. I spent a career at American Airlines so- you know my heart breaks- for American, and for- the PSA team. And our- our collective focus now- is to work very closely together.
And you now have the International Transportation Safety Board on point, and we will get the answer- answers that all of us are so desperately seeking, so I would say, let's let that process play itself out.
And then, in due time, and I don't think it will take that long, to be quite honest- but right now we are in that recovery phase of recovering the bodies of the victims and getting- you know- securing the- in- this airplane and this helicopter, and then really digging into what the- the root cause is.
The NTSB is an exceptional organization, and they are very good. In fact, they're the best. In the world, by Billy Nolen's estimation, at what they do. And they will get to the bottom of this. And you've got all the stakeholders around the table you heard from. See, from Robert Isom at American, all of us. It's all about coming together.
We've had this incredible 16 year run of a really good safety record, worked very hard to drive down the number of close calls. So, when something like this happens, we, you know, we step back and say, look, we're not going to rest on our record. We're going to continue to dive in, figure out what happened, why it went wrong, and how do we prevent that going forward. That's what we owe certainly to the families, and that's what we owe to the American people.
(…)
