Even as the investigation continues into the terrifying crash that happened Monday involving a Delta jet at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, Democrats and the mainstream media think they’ve already found the culprits: President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As we reported earlier, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in particular has been doubling and tripling down on his (false) claims that the “cuts” that have been made in FAA staffing led to the Monday incident in which the plane landed awkwardly in bad weather, lost one of its wings, and rolled to an upside down position.
“To those asking whether it matters that the plane’s destination was in Canada: The flight took off from Minneapolis,” he tweeted Monday evening. “The FAA was still responsible for inspecting the aviation equipment, and Trump just let go of FAA safety specialists.”
READ MORE: Karoline Leavitt Destroys Schumer for Ridiculous Take on Trump and the Toronto Plane Crash
For starters, the “safety specialists” were not let go, as pointed out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a response to a deeply flawed “report” from the Associated Press, which cited an alleged safety specialist who said he was harassed by the “official DOGE Facebook page” and then fired after criticizing them on social media, even though there is no official DOGE Facebook page.
“No air traffic controllers nor any professionals who perform safety critical functions were terminated,” Leavitt said in a tweet.
Further, the staffing changes the administration did make at the FAA had and have no impact on Delta operations, as explained by Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian after CBS Mornings co-anchor Gayle King tried to tee him up to blame Trump:
King: “You know, the Trump administration recently fired many employees of the FAA administration. Do those cuts worry you and do you think that impacts the safety? I know you said it’s the safest way to travel, but after looking at these mishaps, a lot of people are nervous. Do these cuts affect you?”
Bastian: “The cuts do not affect us, Gayle. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA, and the cuts I understand were 300 people and they were in noncritical safety functions.
The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies, they’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators and safety investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all.”
Watch:
🚨🔥CBS Propagandist Gayle King gets real-time fact-check from Delta CEO after attempting to implicate the Trump admin in Toronto crash:
“The cuts do not affect us, Gail. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the, the cuts at… pic.twitter.com/TlJiSFljf5
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 19, 2025
Though the Trump administration has been on top of trying to counter false narratives about any alleged role in the crash, it’s good to see someone like Bastian who is not in the administration but who does have airline industry creds also effectively counter them. Not that Democrats and the media still won’t push the same ol’ tired talking points but it’s good to see calm, rational responses like Bastian’s all the same.
