Peter Doocy didn’t pull any punches during Friday’s White House press briefing. The Fox News correspondent fired a series of pointed questions at White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt regarding President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks blaming the Washington D.C. aircraft collision on DEI initiatives.
Doocy, who often had contentious exchanges with former president Joe Biden, had vowed earlier to extend similar treatment to Trump’s administration, Mediaite reported.
He held true to that promise with his very first question on Friday: “If President Trump is telling us that air traffic control towers are staffed with unqualified controllers—these DEI hires who never should have been brought on—it’s not safe to fly commercially, is it?”
The media-trained Leavitt offered a roundabout response in which she claimed that air travel is safe, but, “With that said, two things can be true at the same time. And we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration… And the president wants to increase those standards.”
Seemingly unsatisfied, Doocy followed up.
“Was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower on Wednesday night hired or not fired at some point because of his or her race?” he asked.
When Leavitt declined to provide details about the ongoing investigation, citing a need to protect the privacy of those involved, Doocy pressed further.
“And when the president says on Truth Social, ‘The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high by a lot, it was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it?’ Is he suggesting a helicopter malfunction or a crew error, or a crew doing this intentionally?” Doocy asked.
“No,” Leavitt replied. “The president is simply stating what he said in that Truth Social post, which is that the helicopter was flying higher than it should have been, which is one of the reasons that led to this collision and the other reasons for that are still being investigated. And I will let that investigation play out.”
Read it at Mediaite
