Pete Buttigieg responds to Trump's 'despicable' comments blaming HIM and DEI for DC plane crash

Pete Buttigieg fired back at Donald Trump, saying he should be 'leading, not lying' after the president blamed him, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and diversity hiring for the collision of a commercial plane and military helicopter that took 67 lives.

The former Transportation secretary called Trump's comments 'despicable' and noted there were 'zero commercial airline crash fatalities' under his watch.

'Despicable,' Buttigieg wrote on social media after Trump's press conference on the crash.

'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,' he noted.

Buttigieg said, that as commander-in-chief, Trump is in charge. 

'President 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.'

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump said Wednesday night's midair collision outside of Reagan National Airport was entirely preventable as he slammed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices in federal agencies.

He added that he had some 'pretty good ideas' of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.

The crash, coming a week after Trump took the oath of office, is the first big test of his administration's disaster response.  His new transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, was also at the briefing. Duffy was sworn into office the day before the crash.

Trump argued he put 'safety' first as president while Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden prioritized politics. He also called Buttigieg by name, saying he was a 'disaster.'

'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 was mayor of South Bend, Ind., before Biden elevated him to his Cabinet. He served as Transportation secretary all four years of the Biden administration. 

But Trump blasted his tenure, saying: 'The initiative is part of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Think of that.' 

Then he insisted that federal agencies need to be hiring based on intelligence rather than on diversity. He added that Air Traffic Controllers need to be 'geniuses'. 

As a reference, he pointed to a report from within the FAA that the workforce was 'too white.' 

Buttigieg has bragged about raising FAA staffing during his tenure.

In a December exit interview with USA Today, he talked about his work with flight controllers: 'To put it succinctly, FAA staffing had been on a trajectory of decline, then it stabilized under the Biden administration, and now it's actually going up. It's not that we got it done overnight, it's that we changed the trajectory from a problem that was getting worse to a problem that's getting better.'

Other Democrats were critical of Trump's press conference on the tragedy. 

'I just watched President Trump's news conference,' said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor. 

'Listen, it's one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracies, it's another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered.'

Democratic Congresswoman Summer Lee of Pennsylvania called Trump's comments 'absolutely vile.'

'A tragedy happens, and instead of mourning the lives lost, they use it to demonize marginalized people as they continue stripping our rights away. Not to share facts, not to offer condolences—just to push a bigoted political agenda. Disgusting,' she wrote on social media.

Trump came to the White House press room to make a statement on the collision between American Eagle plane and a military helicopter. It was the first airline crash in the United States since 2009.

On Wednesday night, American Eagle flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight as it approached the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

There were 60 passengers and four crew aboard the flight out of Wichita, and three members of the military aboard the Black Hawk. 

All are believed dead. The search and rescue has transitioned to a recovery phase.

Search and rescue workers have pulled 27 bodies from the plane and one from the helicopter.

There has been no official cause for the collision. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.