Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: Alsobrooks asks Chavez-DeRemer about Trump blaming diversity hiring for DC air collision
Posted
February 19, 2025
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February 19, 2025
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1:22Now PlayingSen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., questioned labor secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer on Wednesday about what the senator characterized as President Donald Trump’s “troubling and shameful comments” blaming a deadly mid-air collision on the Federal Aviation Administration hiring people with intellectual and mental health disabilities.
“Senator, I cannot comment on what the president says or does not say,” Chavez-DeRemer said in her confirmation before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Before federal investigators had come to any conclusion about the crash in Washington that killed 67 people, Trump suggested with no evidence that former President Joe Biden’s administration had encouraged the FAA to recruit workers “who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has examined a number of factors, including air traffic control staffing, problems with communication right before the crash and the possibility that the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the passenger jet did not have an accurate altitude reading.
In the hearing, Trump’s nominee declined to comment on his assertion.
Chavez-DeRemer, a former mayor and Oregon congresswoman, was raised in a Teamsters family and has strong backing from labor groups. Her union-friendly stance has been a point of contention among her fellow Republicans.
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