The View Rips Donald Trump Suggesting DEI Caused Plane Crash: 'Disgraceful,' 'Illogical'

During a press conference Thursday after an American Airlines regional jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Trump said standards put in place by DEI programs at the FAA were problematic.

"We have to have our smartest people," he said of air traffic controllers. "It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. ... They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can't have regular people doing their job. We can't have regular people doing this job. They won't be able to do it, but we’ll restore faith in American air travel."

Despite acknowledging he still didn't know what caused the crash and offering no evidence DEI programs were to blame in any way, he pushed back at reporters who asked him why he felt that that was the case. "Because I have common sense," he said.

After showing that clip this morning on The View, the entire studio audience groaned in reaction to Trump's "common sense" comment.

"They beg to differ," Joy Behar deadpanned, pointing out that his presser happened as "victims were still being taken out of the Potomac."

"Beyond the egregious and illogical jump to DEI was the continual and predictable lack of impulse control by someone with the largest mic and the largest audience in the world," Sara Haines then began. "And while the bodies were being recovered."

"Step 1 in a tragedy is to mourn, to wait for these families. There are people that are being notified that their loved ones are not coming home," she continued. "This is not the time. Let the dust settle. It's like the wildfires, while they're burning, people are trying to blame game it."

She also took issue with Trump's post to Truth Social shortly after the accident, in which he said, "This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented."

"The worst thing you can say to someone who just lost a loved one is without any evidence that it could have been avoided," Haines said. "Everyone makes mistakes, we don't know why this accident happened and the loose way he speaks about it without any knowledge is heartbreaking."

After Behar called it "disgraceful," Ana Navarro chimed in, saying that being president also requires one to become "the Consoler-in-Chief," who Americans look to "to give us some hope and some optimism and embrace us" during tragedies.

"As there are 67 victims with loved ones and friends and wives and husbands and parents grieving ... this man goes out there and says this," she said. "When you talk about DEI and Trump it means Despicable Enraging Idiocy, that's what his DEI means."

Sunny Hostin, meanwhile, said she wouldn't "dignify his remarks about DEI," before bringing up the fact Trump, in one of his first acts as POTUS, fired key members of the aviation safety advisory committee.

"When voters decide that they want someone to blow things up and want someone to blow up infrastructures, this is the result. You cannot blow up infrastructures and take people who have real experience in this types of issues and think good things will happen because of it," she added.

After pointing out that even Trump himself acknowledged he doesn't know what caused the crash, Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believed "any attempts to swiftly blame Donald Trump are wrong and I think it's even more ridiculous when the president of the United States points to DEI, when he has no information to back that that is in fact what caused this accident. "

She then brought up something that really "bothers" her about Trump in general, saying that whenever he says something incendiary like this, he "floods the zone" -- making it so people don't pay attention to other, sometimes more important things like the confirmation hearings this week on Capitol Hill.

"I don't think this is a strategy for Donald Trump, per se, but it has this unintended consequence of people not paying attention to things that will have real impact on Americans," she added, "because they're so caught up in the crazy of the news cycle of how he floods the zone."

The conversation ended with Haines saying dismantling DEI initiatives is one of Trump's "pet projects," so for him to be able to say "it was DEI that caused" the crash, "he once again becomes the person who will save."

On Wednesday night, an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air near the Ronald Raegan Washington National Airport (DCA). The American Eagle Flight 5342 -- which was traveling from Wichita, Kansas to DCA -- was carrying 64 people on board, including multiple US figure skaters, while the military helicopter had three soldiers on board.