President Donald Trump Snaps at CNN's Kaitlan Collins Over DEI Inquiry at Washington, D.C., Plane Crash Briefing: 'Not a Smart Question'

President Donald Trump got into a heated exchange with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins after she pressed him about "blaming" Democrats and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for the tragic air collision in Washington, D.C.

The White House press briefing took place on Thursday, January 30, a day after American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided, resulting in the loss of 67 lives.

During the press conference, Trump railed against former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for allegedly lowering the standards for air traffic controllers through DEI programs.

"I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that, only the highest aptitude, the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers," Trump told reporters.

"And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level."

Collins spoke out in the press pool and pointed out: "We don’t yet know the names of the 67 people [who] were killed, and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control, and seemingly the member of the US military who was flying the Black Hawk helicopter. Don’t you think you’re getting ahead of the investigation right now?"

Trump shot back, "I don’t think so at all. I don’t think the names of the people — you mean the names of the people that are on the plane — you think that’s going to make a difference?"

Collins replied, "Does it comfort their family to hear you blaming DEI policies?"

The president went on to say he could give Collins a list of names who lost their lives and told her, "I think that’s not a very smart question."

During the same press conference, the president said Democratic administrations "put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program" and ripped former Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, referring to him as a "disaster" who had "a good line of bulls---," but ran the FAA "right into the ground with his diversity."

Trump said, "The FAA diversity push includes a focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. The FAA website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism — all qualified for the position of a controller."

"The FAA — another story — determined that the workforce was too white. They actually came out with a directive, too white, and we want the people that are competent," he continued to ramble. "We’ll restore faith in American air travel, I’ll have more to say about that."