President Donald Trump has been accused of having a “racist and insane agenda” after his press conference in the wake of the Washington air disaster on Wednesday.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) held a press conference – one day after President Trump seemed to blame diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs for the air crash that claimed the lives of 67 people. The CBC slammed Trump after his baseless claim, calling his remarks a “truly disgusting and disgraceful display of racist political prognostication.”
And in a press conference chair Yvette D. Clarke (Democrat, N.Y.) said: “While we wait for the truth of the matter, it is with great and righteous indignation we recognise the comments and actions of one particular individual who did not wait for these facts.
“The individual who rather than empathise with the families of the 67 victims on board, or attempted to unify a grieving country, or even offer his prayers, chose to capitalise on this tragedy by furthering his racist, insane agenda against America’s diverse employees.
“With every action, this president is setting the stage for our country’s next crisis — whatever that may be, I have no doubt he’ll blame anyone who isn’t a white man for it.”
It comes after the CDC released a statement early Friday, mourning the lives of those killed in the collision and blasting Trump’s comments that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were at fault. It read: “It is our hope that the outpour of condolences and support from people across our nation will bring solace during this season of bereavement.
“However, the opportunity to fully focus our sympathies on those who are in mourning and who may not have even retrieved their dearly departed was marred by a truly disgusting and disgraceful display of racist political prognostication.”
As grieving families and loved ones were coming to terms with the horrific tragedy, Donald Trump stood before the White House on Thursday and said the country was in mourning. He offered his condolences to those affected and paid tribute to emergency services and victims.
However, just moments later, he quickly started to point the blame at the Diversity, equity and inclusion programs that have “lowered standards” for hiring air traffic controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration during the presidencies of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Trump and his fellow Republicans have regularly attacked “diversity, equity and inclusion” programmes in the federal government.
But just less than 24 hours after one of the deadliest plane crashes in more than a decade, Trump, along with his vice-president, baselessly blamed federal hiring practices despite having no evidence for this.
Trump blamed Joe Biden’s administration for encouraging the Federal Aviation Administration to recruit workers “who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.”
Pressed by journalists on why he blamed diversity programmes for the crash when the investigation had only just begun, the president responded: “Because I have common sense.” But then later he refused to elaborate and said: “it’s all under investigation”.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was created to prevent discrimination of women, people of colour, and marginalized groups. It ensures people are considered for jobs on equal grounds and to create an inclusive work environment.
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