Karoline Leavitt rips Chuck Schumer for suggesting Trump is partly to blame for Delta crash, ‘Incredibly irresponsible’
Karoline Leavitt blasted Chuck Schumer after the Democratic lawmaker seemed to connect the plane tragedy to Donald Trump’s recent cuts to the FAA’s workforce.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticised Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for suggesting that Donald Trump was partly responsible for the Delta Air Lines jet crash. The plane reportedly flipped on its roof while landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Monday, February 17. All 80 people on board survived the crash, but some suffered minor injuries.
Leavitt called out Schumer after the Democratic lawmaker seemed to connect the plane tragedy to President Trump’s recent cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration’s workforce. “It’s incredibly irresponsible for Chuck Schumer to say such a thing when the investigation is still underway,” Leavitt told Fox News’ America Reports. “This crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air traffic controllers overseeing it.”
What did Chuck Schumer say?
This comes after Schumer posted a series of posts on X, referencing the FAA cuts while reacting to news of the Delta plane crash. “I’m thankful that everyone in the flight incident in Toronto that took off from Minneapolis is safe, but we keep seeing these incidents day after day. Meanwhile, Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA —including safety specialists — and making our skies less and less safe,” Schumer wrote.
“To those asking whether it matters that the plane’s destination was in Canada: The flight took off from Minneapolis. The FAA was still responsible for inspecting the aviation equipment, and Trump just let go of FAA safety specialists,” he added.
Leavitt noted that Canadian air traffic controllers were to blame for directing the plane before it crash-landed. She added that “no air traffic controllers have been let go” by the Trump administration.
“In fact, Secretary [Sean] Duffy has put great emphasis on hiring the best and the brightest air traffic controllers who want to be part of the FAA,” Leavitt added. She also blasted the Biden administration for sitting “on their hands when it came to aviation safety for four years.”