U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Frederica Wilson sharply criticized President Donald Trump for his assertion, offered without any evidence, that federal government diversity efforts were a cause of this week’s air disaster.
“Drawing inferences from this heartbreaking event, where so many lost their loved ones in an instant, and insinuating that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the inclusion of disabled people are the cause is not only unacceptable but also dangerous,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement. “Being a minority or having a disability does not imply intellectual inferiority.”
Wilson was more blunt: “While human bodies are still being pulled from the Potomac, Donald Trump is blaming white women and minorities for the deadly crash under the guise of DEI,” Wilson wrote in a social media post. “We should all expect our President to lead us with sympathy and compassion during a monumental tragedy such as a fatal airline crash that claimed 67 lives.
“The response from the White House lacks leadership and is abysmal and sickening,” Wilson added.
Wilson, elected in 2010, represents parts of South Broward and Miami-Dade County. Cherfilus-McCormick, elected in January 2022, represents most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Both Democrats, they were responding to comments Trump made Thursday about the Wednesday night midair collision between a commercial airliner that was about to land and Washington Reagan National Airport and an Army helicopter. Everyone on both aircraft, 64 on the jet and three in the helicopter, were killed.
Trump began his White House briefing Thursday with a moment of silence and a prayer for victims.
But his remarks quickly became a diatribe against diversity hiring and his allegation — so far without evidence — that standards, which he claimed had been lowered, were to blame for the crash.
The cause of the crash is still unknown. Authorities are investigating.
Trump was asked repeatedly to explain why he was blaming federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the crash, at one point alleging that previous leadership had determined that the Federal Aviation Administration workforce was “too white.”
Asked about evidence to support his claims blaming diversity initiatives, Trump offered none. His explanation: “Because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”
Trump also blamed former President 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.” He added that the program allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”
Trump did not share any evidence that unqualified people were being put in critical positions like air traffic control, and he acknowledged that there was as yet no indication that air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport made any mistakes.
Diversity efforts have long been promoted by the FAA, including during Trump’s first term as president. They were removed from the agency’s website this month, but diversity was promoted there since at least 2013, including during Trump’s first term in office. Substantially similar language about seeking candidates with disabilities was on the site during both Biden’s term and Trump’s first term, according to snapshots from the Internet Archive.
Cherfilus-McCormick, in her statement late Thursday night, called the plane crash a tragedy and extended condolences to the families of the 67 people who lost their lives.
And, she added, Trump’s claims were unacceptable.
“We cannot keep leading the country this way. Instead, we must focus on protecting the American people, helping our nation heal, filling our critical Air Traffic Controller roles, and removing the hiring freeze that was put in place last week to ensure the FAA is adequately empowered to do its job,” Cherfilus McCormick said. “My thoughts and prayers are with those grieving this tragic loss. They deserve clarity and support, not diversions.”
Opposition to efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace has become a rallying cry on the political right, and Trump campaigned against DEI as a candidate last year.
On Monday, at a ceremonial congressional swearing in held in Fort Lauderdale, Cherfilus-McCormick raised the “fallacy when you hear about diversity, equity inclusion that somehow diversity, equity inclusion is not merit-based. I say it’s a fallacy because it is not true.”
Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this news article.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.