Democrats tears into ‘vile’ and ‘grotesque’ Trump for blaming the plane crash on DEI

Democrats unleashed on President Donald Trump on Thursday after he blamed diversity and inclusion policies and criticized his predecessors following the deadly plane crash.

During his press conference on Thursday at the White House, the 78-year-old claimed he put ‘safety’ first while Presidents Biden and Obama prioritized politics in a jaw-dropping political attack. 

Trump’s remarks came just hours after an American Airline plane collided with a military helicopter midair Wednesday evening near Reagan International Airport. 67 people were killed.

Democrats on Thursday afternoon were enraged by his response which left no survivors in what is the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. in decades.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded on Capitol Hill just moments after he watched the president’s news conference.

‘It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew up conspiracy theories. It’s another for the President of the United States of America to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still being notified,’ Schumer said.

‘It just turns your stomach,’ he added.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said he was ‘outraged’ watching the president’s response.

‘It was just grotesque the way he immediately politicized this terrible tragedy,’ he said. 

‘I think he owes the American people an apology,’ Van Hollen said. 

‘He was immediately pointing fingers and when he was asked by the press what the basis of his claims were, he admitted that he didn’t have any,’ the senator noted. 

During his remarks, Trump also went after former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served under Biden. 

‘He was a disaster as a Mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls***’, Trump said of Buttigieg.

Buttigieg, whose successor was sworn into office just hours before the collision, responded on X.

‘Despicable,’ he wrote. ‘As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.’ 

Buttigieg went on that Trump ‘now oversees the military and the FAA.’

‘One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,’ he continued.

Senator Tim Kaine who represents Virginia called Trump blaming DEI policies ‘stomach-churning’ and ‘outrageous’ and noted Trump had to acknowledge he did not have evidence to support his claim.

‘Can you imagine a more damaging thing to hear if you’re suffering already than a president trying to make political hay out of something like this?’ Kaine said in an interview on CNN.

‘They were still searching for bodies in the Potomac when he was running off at the mouth about this,’ Kaine said.  

Kaine told reporters on Thursday that he expects there were victims in the crash from his state as the American Airlines jet was headed to Reagan. 

He would not speculate on the collision and said they would get answers from the NTSB, but he expressed that he had been concerned about the complex airspace. 

Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett went after Trump in a blistering post on X following his remarks. 

‘This is truly like a real life bad episode of the Apprentice, but honestly, He is the first one who should be fired,’ she wrote. 

‘It is clear that he has no idea of how to do the job of President, competently,’ she continued.

‘I expect that his entire tenure will go something like this, when things go bad… Biden, Biden, Biden, Obama, Biden, DEI, DEI, DEI, trans, immigrant, repeat,’ Crockett wrote.

Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot, also responded online. 

‘There are still bodies being pulled from the Potomac River. Families are grieving the loss of loved ones,’ she wrote on X.

‘Yet Donald Trump is baselessly blaming “DEI” for last night’s tragic collision. Absolutely shameful. We need the facts, not partisan politics,’ she said. 

Duckworth is the ranking member of the Aviation Safety Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation and will be involved in the investigation of what happened.