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31st January 2025
08:34am GMT
Donald Trump made a crude joke to a reporter who asked if he planned to visit the site of the plane crash in Washington DC.
The plane, a Bombardier CRJ700, departed from Wichita, Kansas and was carrying 60 passengers and four crew, American Airlines said.
It collided with a Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter that had three soldiers on board, before both aircraft crashed into the Potomac river.
When asked by a reporter during a press conference whether he was set to visit the site of the crash, Trump made a controversial joke.
"I have a plan to visit, not the site," he said. "Because what, you tell me. What's the site? Water. We're going to go swimming?"
It comes as Trump hit out at a diversity drive at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and linked it to the crash.
"We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas," he said.
"We have to have our smartest people," Trump added. "They have to be naturally talented geniuses."
He continued: "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."
Trump said that he signed an executive order that "restored the highest standards of air traffic controllers" after being signed in as president last week.
"When I left office and Biden took over he changed them [standards for those who work in aviation] back to lower than ever before, I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen because this was the lowest level."
He later said, when asked if gender or race played a role in the crash: "It may have, I don't know. Incompetence may have played a role."
Trump appointed a temporary administrator, Chris Rocheleau, to the FAA in the wake of the crash.
Its previous boss, Michael Whitaker, stepped down when Trump took office on 20 January.
The American Association of People with Disabilities issued a statement in response to Trump's claims.
"FAA employees with disabilities did not cause [the] tragic plane crash," they said.
"The investigation into the crash is still ongoing. It is extremely inappropriate for the president to use this tragedy to push an anti-diversity hiring agenda. Doing so makes all Americans less safe."
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