lawfully available intelligence that can be collected by the american intelligence community in order to inform him so that he can make good judgments as commander-in-chief to assure safety and security of the american people. >> having been responsible for the promulgation of that intelligence i firmly believe he and every president must have it. >> so you would not support any impractical or perhaps im material or unworkable ways to inhibit the flow of that information to president trump. >> no, i would not. >> let me just ask you, you and i talked about this a number of times and it has come up before in a number of different contexts but as i have always said i think 702 of the

intelligence act is the the most important law americans have never heard of. when i was questioning my fellow texan, john ratcliffe who has been confirmed at the director of the c.i.a. about this, we talked about some of the reforms that have been made to section 702 over the years. this has been an ongoing conversation here in congress. people like my colleagues here, senator lee and others have proposed reforms, which i think have gone a long way to help protect the privacy rights of american citizens. but let me just point out some of the improvements made over the years. this is not the same 702 that was in effect during president trump's first term. these are a number of things that we did to together on a bipartisan basis to make sure that the balance between the national security interests of the american people and the privacy and constitutional rights of american citizens were protected. do you agree with that? >> yes, i do.

>> and i think senator tillis, with his typical outstanding graphics, has a wonderful hand-out which lays all of that out. but one of the things that has come up and we've discussed this is the idea that in order to query lawfully collected intelligence under section 702 that somehow if a u.s. person's name is involved that a warrant would be required. now, you are a lawyer who has represented defendants as a public defender, you understand that what probable cause is required, what sort of evidence is required to be produced to a judge in order to get a warrant. do you believe a warrant requirement is a practical and workable or even a nestlement of 702? >> if i may give context. having a background not only utilizing fisa and 702 as a

national security prosecutor but later as an intelligence official and deputy director of national intelligence 702 collection form later over 45% of the presidential daily briefing you referred to earlier. >> i heard it's as high as 60%. it's a lot. >> it is a lot. the issue for me is not that fisa and 702 but those who abused it in the past. we must work with congress to provide the protections necessary for american citizens dealing with these matters including hostage rescue operations in realtime, which we use fisa collection to find and save american hostages. having a warrant requirement to go through that information in realtime is just not comportive with the requirement to protect american citizens. i'm open to working with congress finding a better way forward. but right now these improvements

that you've made go a long way. >> and director ratcliffe said that he did not believe that given the context of 702 collection where a foreign target communicates with a u.s. person there should be enough evidence to go to court to demonstrate probable cause. do you agree with that? >> yeah, just in realtime. it is almost impossible to make that function and serve the national no fail mission. >> i think you hit the nail on the head when you point out the lack of trust. any of these tools can be abused by people who are willing to break the law or abuse these tools or violate the public trust. director ratcliffe used i thought a helpful analogy and see if you agree with it. he said the knives in your kitchen have a very useful and

beneficial purpose but they, too, can be misused. >> harris: we're covering a lot happening right now at the same time. my team will continue to monitor this confirmation hearing for f.b.i. director nominee kash patel. it is extremely important to the nation we get those cabinet members in place. we're watching that. right now breaking news. the nation's commander-in-chief will speak to the nation about what is now being called the worst aviation crash in u.s. history. a midair collision over the potomac river at ronald reagan international airports. recovery efforts began. hours ago they continue after a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet, american eagle flight 5342. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus." just before 9:00 p.m. local time in washington, d.c. a chopper collided with the a plight from

kansas. 64 people aboard the plane. three air crew inside the chopper and we've been told not to expect any survivors. it is jarring and hard to take in. but let's watch together the point of impact. you will see there is a plane flying above and then the collision happens in that circle. there it is. the explosion as that american eagle flight and the blackhawk chopper crashed into each other. you saw that other plane in the sky just flying on by. so potentially maybe they saw something. transportation secretary sean duffy's team along with officials at the crash site which is the potomac river as you saw. they are confirming the passenger jet was ripped into three sections. chief washington correspondent mike he manual is in all x

andrea, virginia. >> you can expect the ntsb to have an investigation into this crash in the next eight to 12 months and pentagon and army will also look into it. the newly sworn in transportation secretary offered this assessment earlier. >> so we have to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point but to back up what the president said what i've seen so far i think it was preventable absolutely. >> audio from the reagan national control tower revealed the american airlines flight was being cleared to land at reagan national while the army jet was supposed to pass behind it. >> we're told the army crew was

fairly experienced carrying out a training mission last night. the ceo of american airlines says his crew had plenty of flight hours, too. >> these were experienced pilots. i know the captain had six years with psa and the first officer almost two years. and again, standard approach. >> the heartbreaking announcement this morning was the shifting from a rescue to a recovery operation. it is eerily quiet along the potomac a mile south of the airport. typically you would hear flights buzzing into and out of this incredibly busy airport, harris. >> harris: great reporting as always. john roberts is at reagan national airport. john, i don't know if you could hear mike but saying how quiet

it is without planes taking off. >> this is always a pub of activity as planes are taking off or landing and the terminals here at reagan airport are always filled with people. they are starting to get operations back underway now. we expect flights to resume. i talked with a woman from a sheriff's department in new mexico. they have been here for a sheriffs conference. clearly what happened last night is on the minds of everyone. her flight one of the first once to depart after the accident. i've flown out of reagan airport and into it hundreds of times. this is very congested airspace shared by a lot of commercial aircraft as well as official aircraft from the army, from the marines as well as the u.s. park police. helicopters are flying up and down the potomac every day. and for a collision like this to happen, for a lot of people it

is income present henceible. this is some of the most tightly controlled airspace in the world particularly after 9/11. no general aviation allowed near here and corridors for military aircraft and civilian commercial aircraft to travel in. there is a lot of speculation as to what happened last night because there was an aircraft taking off from runway one just as the american eagle flight was coming in for a landing on runway 33. did the air crew of the blackhawk potentially mistake that aircraft for the one they were told to avoid that was coming in for a landing? no one knows. there will be a massive investigation undertaken here. we've seen people from the ntsb at reagan airport. the pentagon and military will be undertaking its own investigation as to what happened. you could say with so many aircraft flying in such small airspace because there are so

many restrictions over the national capital region maybe something like this someday was bound to happen. again, with this airspace being so tightly controlled people don't know how something like this could have happened. 9:00 at night. one aircraft on a training mission, the other coming in for a landing. the last big incident that happened of this nature was back on january 22, 1982, when that air florida plane, which had ice on its wings, tried to take off from the northbound runway, couldn't gain altitude and crashed into the 14th street bridge. many of us remember at the time the iconic images of a steward plucked from the water. several people survived that crash. unfortunately no survivors from this crash. how this possibly could have happened investigation gets underway. >> harris: people start to collect at the gates and go

through security checkpoints. so we can feel a little more movement now inside that airport as you were describing trying to get operations back on board. this is now affecting other flight patterns across the country. that plane was coming in from kansas, the one that crashed sadly. and then so other people in other airports are waiting on planes to get to d.c. it is something that's affecting a lot of people now. john roberts, thank you. we'll definitely see you at 1:00 eastern for america reports. i work a long time on the weekends with jon scott, a licensed pilot and loved of to pick his brain in the greenroom asking him about all things aviation. john, gracious of you. i know you were up all night to call in. what about this story now have we learned that seems right, that surprises you, anything? >> the thing that, you know, i feel a little bit bad about the

last night we were listening to tower recordings of their communication with the chopper, ask the chopper if they had the jet in sight and then we heard the tower ask the chopper to remain or pass behind the jet. and we didn't hear any response. i assumed wrongly that that meant that the pilot of the chopper was not on the correct frequency. it turns out, i should have thought of this last night, military aircraft use a different -- entirely different spectrum of the radio band. uhf frequencies and when the tower speaks to them they are speaking simultaneously on both. vfh goes to the jets and little planes like mine. >> harris: civilian, yeah. >> so this morning i did hear acknowledgement from the

chopper. the chopper pilot says that he has the regional jet in sight and maintain visual. i will stay out of his way. but that clearly leads me to believe that what a friend of mine speculated last night, a long-time commercial pilot, airline pilot. he speculated that the chopper had the wrong aircraft in view because of the pilot of the chopper said i'll stay within out of his way and within seconds the crash occurred. >> harris: we've all seen this video of that impact and collision. what i had not seen was a wide enough shot you could see how closely three planes were together. there is one that would be above the chopper and the chopper was above the plane that was hit. but as they were all coming in maybe the chopper had seen that one and thought he had the right

flight in view. there is a lot of speculation. i want to know about that third plane. >> it is not unusual for air traffic control to stack somebody right above the airport if they need to burn some time and wait for a landing slot. it is tough to know. i would guess that the chopper crew saw the other regional jet taking off from runway one and if they were looking what would have been to their right they would have seen that. whereas the impact aircraft was coming from their left. >> harris: okay. jon scott, i appreciate you calling in and being with us on "the faulkner focus" for this as the news warrants, we'll tap in again. thank you. >> thanks. >> harris: i want to bring in jason pack, a former fema external affairs officer and currently a first responder.

are you with us by phone? and we can see you, welcome. thank you. so you've seen this from different points of view. you've seen it from the disaster zone, which is now in the middle of the potomac river off site of the reagan international airport. what is that crash site like to you? i live not too far from where captain sully set down. our hudson river was mostly frozen so he almost had a cement landing and that saved a lot of people's lives. this is different. >> yes, ma'am, it is different. with the focus being shifted now to a recovery effort, it is a very daunting task. you can't see under the water at all. some people think you can dive down, look around in your masks and hook a hook to it and raise everything and find everybody. you really can't see your hand in front of your face, the water is super cold and limited time you can be down there. it is an important job now the

first responders are doing everything they can to find information for the victims of the families and return those remains respectfully and quickly, as quickly as they can. i know in other situations and other emergencies the victims' families want information, confirmed information. that first responder who is out there now doing the best they can to look and see just what they can do to help that situation. it will be a horrific day. you will hear stories of great people we've lost in this and it will be horrific. if you are a praying lady say an accident prayer for the families. >> harris: i am a praying lady. i've been praying. when i heard about the water temperatures i thought about what you described. it would take a miracle. i believe in miracles but it has been more than 14 hours now since this crash happened. as first responders, what are you coordinating on the ground?

i know the military has to get in touch with those families. you were talking about people wanting answers, people at the airports, on the other end of this, the mayor of wichita, kansas gave a news conference an hour ago. there were people who said goodbye to this young u.s. skating team, coaches and a couple of members, waiting to get an actual list of people and names but that may take some time. >> yes, it will definitely take time. someone involved in crises throughout the past 25 years, this one seems to have gone pretty smoothly. a lot of times initial information is not correct. in this case a lot of it was. we saw the unified command come out early within the first couple of hours with a press conference to give as much official information as they knew and followed that up this morning with additional information. it seems like they are on the right track of trying to provide as much information as they can. these things take time. the ntsb has been charged, a

smaller agency but they are robust and have a lot of capabilities. i have oh he been in touch with the f.b.i. offices there at the washington field. i know that they have a victim assistance team that's there on ground to help the washington field office response teams there and also a squad called the national capitol response quad. the rank and file out there every day to bring assistance to all the people who are involved in the recovery efforts. you are right. you have the military, the civilian side, and so they've set up a unified command to be able to bring records in from each of those and to be able to coordinate these response efforts. >> harris: that's very helpful. and as we're watching the scene play out live in front of us to the left, we see boats and they are still circling. you gave us so much information with your 25 years of experience in watching crises unfold and being part of making a difference. talk to me, though, and i know

you and i spoke of our prayer and miracles. what are they looking for right now to help them recover? that now is the focus of the story. we don't know if there could be a miracle here but what are they up against? >> they are up against really tough conditions. number one priority is to find the black box, cockpit and flight data recorder and get those to the surface and let the ntsb take a look at everything said there. what conversation was going on in the cockpit from the helicopter and the crj. they will take a look at that and interview people in the tower and get context of this. we have bits and pieces coming out now but need to add the context to what is going to be found in these discoveries with the black box. that's priority one. debris recovery and black boxes. >> harris: i'm sure as people look at the screen they see your title former external leader in

fema and i'm wondering what does fema do from this point on? we've seen so much criticism of your former agency. what is there a role for for fema in what we're watching? >> the coordination agency. they are working with the district of columbia, office of emergency management, provide any federal resources they have. d.c. makes it unique. every resource you would need there from every alphabet agency all the way down. they are in touch, i'm sure, with the district office of emergency management there to provide whatever resources they may need. >> harris: all right. i want to thank you very much, jason, for your expertise and time and the ever going reminder for all of us to stay in prayer. the president of the united states, donald trump. >> president trump: i would like to request a moment of silence for the victims and their

families, please. [moment of silence] >> president trump: thank you very much. i speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation. just before 9:00 p.m. last night an american airlines regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with an army blackhawk helicopter carrying three service members over the potomac river in washington, d.c., while on final approach to reagan national airport. both aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the

potomac. a real tragedy. the massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leverageing every asset at our disposal. i have to say the local, state, federal coast guard have done a phenomenal job so quick and fast. it was mobilized immediately. the work is now shifting to a recovery mission. sadly, there are no survivors. this was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capitol and our nation's history and tragedy of terrible proportions. as one nation we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. and we are a country of really are in mourning. this has really shaken a lot of people, including people, sadly,

from other nations who were on the flight. for the family members back in wichita, kansas, here in washington, d.c. and throughout the united states and in russia, we have a russia contingent, very talented people unfortunately were on that plane, very, very sorry about that whose loved ones were aboard the passenger jet. we can only begin to imagine the agony that you are all feeling. nothing worse. on behalf of the first lady, myself and 340 million americans our hearts are shattered alongside yours and our prayers are with you now and in the days to come we'll be working diligently in the days to come. we're here for you to wipe away the tears and to offer you devotion, love and support. there is great support. in moments like this, the differences between americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all. both as americans and even as

nations. we are one family and today we are all heartbroken. we're all searching for answers. that icy, icy potomac was a cold, cold night, cold water. we are are all overcome with the grief for many who so tragic di perished. together we take solace in the knowledge their journey ended not in the cold waters of the potomac but the warm embrace of a loving god. we don't know what led to this crash but have some strong opinions and ideas and state those opinions now. over the years i've watched as things like this happen and they say well, we're always investigating and three years later they announce it. we have some pretty good ideas but we'll find out how this disaster occurred and we'll insure that nothing like this ever happens again.

the faa and the ntsb and u.s. military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. our new secretary of transportation sean duffy, his second day on the job when that happened. it is a rough one. we'll be working tirelessly. the whole group, these are great people and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened. we will state certain opinions, however. i'm also immediately appointing an acting commissioner to the faa, christopher, a 22 year veteran of the agency highly respected. christopher, thank you very much. appreciate it. must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. i changed the obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. you remember that.

only the highest aptitude, they have to be highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. that was not so prior to getting there when i arrived in 2016. i made that change very early on because i always felt this was a job that -- other jobs, too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence and we didn't really have that. we had it 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. they put politics at a level that nobody has ever seen because this was the lowest level. their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.

so as you know, last week long before the crash, i signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controls and other important jobs throughout the country. it was very interesting about a week ago, almost upon entering office, i signed something, last week, that was an executive order, a powerful one restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others, by the way. my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety. we have of that our smartest people. doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are, it matters intellect, talent, the word talent. they have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. we can't have regular people doing that job. they won't be able to do it. but we'll restore faith in american air travel. i will have more to say about that. i do want to point out that

various articles that appeared prior to my entering office and here is one. the faa's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psych psychiatric dispelts. they are the most unrepresented part of the workforce. they can be air traffic controllers. i don't think so. this was in january 14th. it was a week before i entered office. they put a big push to put diversity into the faa's program. then another article the federal aviation administration, this was before i got to office. recently second term. the faa is actively recruiting

workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website. can you imagine? these are people that are actually their lives are shortened because of the stress that they have, brilliant people have to be in those positions and their lives are actually shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it. targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government as a matter of policy has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. the faa's website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy,

severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map. a little runway. the initiative is part of the faa's diversity and inclusion hiring plan. think of that. diversity hiring plan. diversity is integral to the faa mission of insuring safe and efficient. i don't think so. i think it is the opposite. the faa website shows the agency guidance on diversity hiring were last updated march 23, 2022. they wanted to make it more so. then i came in and i assume maybe this is the reason, the faa, which is overseen by

secretary pete buttigieg, a real winner, a real winner. you know how badly everything has run since he ran the department of transportation? he is a disaster. he was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his city into the ground and he is a disaster now. he got a good line of bullshit. the department of transportation is government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. he runs it, 45,000 people and he has run it right into the ground with his diversity. so i had to say that it's terrible. a group within the faa, another story, determined that the workforce was too white. that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. this was in the obama administration just prior to my getting there. and we took care of

african-americans, hispanic americans and took care of everybody at levels that nobody has ever seen before and one of the reasons i won. they actually came out with a directive, too white. and we want the people that are competent. but now we mourn and we pray and we would like to ask all americans to join me in a moment of silence as we ask god to watch over those who have lost their lives and bring comfort to the loved ones and i just want to say god bless everyone in this room. this has been a terrible, very short period of time. we'll get to the bottom of it. we also the same thing, seen it many times. i have had the honor of hearing tapes, tapes are scary. very scary tapes. you had an airliner coming in, american airlines, he was doing everything right. he was on track.

he was the same track as everybody else. they came in and probably the same track as they've had for 25 years or more. he is coming in the path and for some reason, you had a helicopter that was at the same height, obviously whether they hit. pretty much the same height and going at an angle that was unbelievably bad. when the air traffic controller said do you see, talking about do you see him? there was very little time left when that was stated and he said follow him in and almost immediately after that, you know, seconds after that there was the crash that took place. well, you follow him in. everything is fine, follow him in. you have had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter. it was visual.

very clear night. it was cold but clear and clear as you could be. the american airlines plane had lights blazing. all the landing lights on. i could see it from the kennedy center tape. we had a tape on the kennedy center that seems to be the primary -- i'm sure we'll see other tapes because it is such an area where a lot of cameras looking up into the air and space. we'll probably see many other shots of it before too much time goes by. but we had a situation where up had a helicopter that had the ability to stop. i have helicopters. you can stop a helicopter very quickly. it had the ability to go up or down, the ability to turn, and the turn it made was not the correct turn obviously. and it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told. we don't know that would have

been the difference because the timing was so tight. it was so -- it was so little. there was so little time to think. but what you did have is vision. the helicopter had vision of the plane because you had vision of it all the way, perfect vision of it all the way at kennedy center where the tape was taken. for some reason there weren't adjustments made. again, you could have slowed down the helicopter substantially, you could have stopped the helicopter, you could have gone up or down or gone straight up, straight down, you could have turned, you could have done a million different maneuvers. for some reason it just kept going. and then made a slight turn at the very end and there was by that time it was too late. they shouldn't have been at the same height because if it wasn't the same height you could have gone under or over it and nobody realized or they didn't say it

is at the same height. at the same height wouldn't have been great but you would have missed it. it could have between 1,000 feet higher, 200 feet lower but exactly at the same height. somebody should have been able to point that out. all of this will be studied. it just seems to me from a couple of words that i would like to use the words common sense some really bad things happened. and some things happened that shouldn't have happened. you had a helicopter going in identical direction, a helicopter that was at the exact same height as somebody going in essentially the opposite direction. you had a plane following a track which is a track that every other plane followed. and i don't imagine -- i know i've heard today they might have been following the preceding plane that was pretty close, but not that close. the preceding plane. you wouldn't have been able to

some that because of the direction the helicopter was coming in at. so you had a confluence of bad decisions that were made and you have people that lost their lives, violently lost their lives. we will take a few questions. i would like to ask our new secretary of transportation to say a few words, sean duffy, great gentleman, just started. it's not your fault and i know you agree with me strongly on intellect and even psychological well-being of the air traffic controllers. such an important position. i think i can emphasize stronger, i changed it when i first ran in 2016. i changed it. we had the highest standard that you could have. and then they changed it back, biden, to a standard i read it to you from one of your papers, one of the people in this room

actually wrote that, and then i changed it back a few days ago. and unfortunately that was -- we'll see. we don't know that necessarily it is even the controller's fault. one thing we do know there was a lot of vision and people should have been able to see. at what point do you say wow, that plane is getting a little bit close? this is a tragedy that should not have happened. please. >> thank you, mr. president. i would note the president's leadership has been remarkable during this crisis. we have had a whole of government response, local, state, federal, and when you see that kind of cooperation, it begins with the leadership in this body. thank you for that, mr. president. you make our jobs a lot easier. you made an important point that when we deal with safety, we can

only accept the best and brightest in positions of safety that impact the lives of our loved ones, our family members. you make an important point on that, mr. president. the motto of your presidency, the best and brightest. the most intelligent coming into these spaces. i want to take a moment and extend my condolences to the families of the loved ones. we commit to them that we are going to get to the bottom of this investigation. not in three years, not in four years but as quickly as possible with the ntsb here today as well as the faa. what happened yesterday shouldn't have happened. it should not have happened. when americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination. that didn't happen yesterday. that's not acceptable. so we will not accept excuses. we will not accept passing the buck. we are going to take responsibility at the department

of transportation and the faa to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by president trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again. i want to thank you for your leadership, mr. president, and i appreciate the confidence you placed in me. >> president trump: thank you. pete, would you like to say something? >> thank you, mr. president, again i want to echo what the transportation secretary said about your leadership. we were in contact with the white house trying to determine exactly what happened. i would echo as well no excuses. we'll get to the bottom of this. we first and foremost from the defense department want to pass our condolences to the 64 souls and their families affected by this. never should happen. certainly the three service members, the three soldiers, young captain, staff sergeant and cw2.

routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for continuity of government mission. the military does dangerous things. it does routine things on a regular basis. tragically last night a mistake was made. the president is right, there was some sort of elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the d.o.d. and army level. army c.i. dichlt is on the ground investigation. top tier aviation are investigating to get to the bottom of it so it does not happen again. it absolutely unacceptable. i want to echo what transportation secretary and you mr. president said. because it pertains to the d.o.d. as well. we will have the best and brightest in every position possible. as you said in your inaugural it is color blind and merit based. the best leaders possible whether it's flying blackhawks and airplanes, leading platoons or in government.

the era of d.e.i. is gone at the defense department and we need to best and brightest whether it's in air traffic control, whether it's in generals, or whether it's throughout government. thank you for your leadership and courage and we'll stand by you on it. thank you. >> president trump: j.d., please. >> i want to re-emphasize something the president said and you heard from the secretary of transportation and defense. there was a whole of government response. we were on the phone communicating trying to get to the bottom of it immediately and try to communicate with the american people about what happened. something the president said that bears reemphasizing which is that when you don't have the best standards in who you are hiring it means on the one hand you aren't getting the best people in government. on the other hand it puts stresses on the people who are already there. i think that's a core part of what president trump is going to bring and has already brought to

washington, d.c. is we want to hire the best people because we want the best people at air traffic control and we want to make sure we have enough people at air traffic control who are competent to do the job. if you go to some of the headlines over the past ten years many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but turned away because of the color of their skin. that policy ends under donald trump's leadership. safety is the first priority of our aviation industry. thank you, mr. president. >> an d.e.i. and the changes you made. are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring and what evidence have you seen to support these claims? >> president trump: it just could have been. we have a high standard. a much higher standard than anybody else. there are things where you have to go by brain power, you have to go by psychological quality and psychological quality is a very important element of it. these are very powerful tests we

put to use and were terminated by biden and biden went by a standard that is the the exact opposite. we don't know. we do know that you had two planes at the same level. a helicopter and a plane. that shouldn't have happened. and we'll see. we'll look into that and see. but certainly for an air traffic controller we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. we want somebody that is psychologically superior and that's what we are going to have. >> mr. president, you said there were several russian nationals on the flight. will the u.s. government be willing to facilitate the transfer of their remains considering the fact there is no direct air cryophile between the two countries? >> we've been in contact with russia and the answer is yes, we'll facilitate. yes. >> thank you, mr. president.

the situation in the dem -- [inaudible question] the situation is really bad right now. i want to hear from this president if you have any plans in the future to bring peace in the democratic republic of rwanda. >> it is a serious problem. >> do you know the names of the 67 people killed and you are blaming democrats and d.e.i. policies and air traffic control and a member of the u.s. military flying that blackhawk helicopter. don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation at all. ? >> the names of the people that are on the plane? you think that's going to make a difference? we are a group of people that have lost their lives. if you want a list of the names we can give you that. we will give you that very soon

in coordination with american airlines and strongly with the military. bust i think that's not a very smart question. i'm surprised coming from you. please. >> thank you, president trump for being here. based on your analysis so far do you have a sense of who was at fault if it was the plane, the helicopter, air traffic control and can you assure people it is safe to fly in and out of d.c.? >> president trump: i've given you the analysis. it was based on vision. you had a lot of people that saw what was happening. you had some people that knew what was happening. there was some warnings but the warnings were given very, very late. warnings were given very late. almost as they were given a few seconds later there was a crash. it should have been brought up earlier. but the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going. i can't imagine people with 2020

vision not seeing what is happening up there. again, they shouldn't have been at the same height. you are going in reverse directions or side way directions. obviously you want to be at different heights. i see it all the time when i'm flying. you have planes going in the opposite. always lower, we're higher. so if somehow there is a screw-up there won't be a tragedy. it will be close. there will never be a tragedy if you are at a different elevation. for whatever reason they were at the same elevation and also from the american airlines standard he is along the track that every plane is along. you see, what was the helicopter doing in that track? very sad. but visually somebody should be been able to see and taken the helicopter out of plane and should have been at a different height. >> you mentioned the russians on board that plane.

what other nationalities were on board. >> president trump: a couple of hours. well announce in an hour. we have specific information. we are calling the countries and spoken to most of them. there were other countries represented. >> mr. president -- >> i have not, no. not about this. >> you have already issued an executive order to restore aviation safety. this crash happened after that. what the executive order successful? >> we issued it three days ago and in the process of making those changes. this is something that should have been done a long time ago. actually my original order should have never been changed. i think maybe you wouldn't have had this problem, maybe. >> we see like everyday life very often diversity hires cause issues sometimes as you just

mentioned. what plan do you have other than -- are you going to fire the diversity hire in the federal government? what plan do you have? >> president trump: the answer is yes. if we find people aren't mentally competent. you see the language. the language is put out by them. and if you see -- i won't bore you by reading it again. these are not people that should be doing this particular job. they would be very good for certain jobs but not people doing this particular job. >> mr. president, you have today blamed the diversity elements but then told us that you weren't sure that the controllers made any mistakes. you then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistake. >> president trump: it is all under investigation. >> that's why i'm trying to figure out how you come to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with this crash. >> president trump: because i have common sense, okay? and unfortunately a lot of

people don't. we want brilliant people doing this. this is a major chess game at the highest level. when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time all coming in different directions and you are dealing with very high level computer work and very complex computers. one of the other things i will tell you is that the systems that were built. i was going to rebuild the entire system and then we had an election that didn't turn out the way it should have but they didn't build the systems properly. they spent a lot of money renovating a system. spending much more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controllers, meaning the computerized systems. there are certain companies that do a very good job. they didn't use those companies. they used companies that should not have been doing it. no, i think it's very important to understand that for some jobs -- not only this but air traffic controllers, they have to be at

the highest level of genius. >> i want to ask you about ice skaters in a moment. the u.s. ice skating committee was affected. the implications this policy is new or stems from efforts that began under president biden or the transportation secretary pete buttigieg is false. it has been on the f.aa's website. the faa website there in 2013, there for the entirety of your administration, too. my question is why didn't you change the policy during your first administration? >> president trump: i changed the obama policy and we had a good policy. biden came in and changed it and then when i came in two days, three days ago i signed a new order bringing it to the highest level of intelligence. >> it's on the website. >> welcome back. you mentioned a vision was probably the problem that was issue in the crash. there has been some reports that

one of the pilots in the helicopter may have been using night vision equipment. >> president trump: we don't know. we'll know that pretty soon. it may change your view plan if you have the night vision. it is very possible that could have happened. that would be maybe a reason why you wouldn't actually see as well as on a clear night you can see sometimes better without it. a couple more. >> mr. president, is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed and impact other nominees being confirmed quickly? is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed and intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well? >> president trump: yes, we want fast confirmations. the democrats are doing everything they can to delay them. they have taken too long. we are struggling to get very good people that everybody knows will be confirmed but we're struggling to get them out faster. we want them out faster. that's a good question,

actually. we have been pushing sean, everyone knows sean for a long time got many democrat votes but they want to take as long as they can. they ask questions like some of the questions that peter was asked totally irrelevant and very good questions. they want to keep it going as long as possible. i was very honored that you got so many democrat votes. that was really good. really good. >> when are you planning to meet with the families and is it your impression that -- training, the helicopter was involved in, is anything to talk about that? >> president trump: we don't know. these things will come up with the investigation. the helicopter was in the wrong place at the wrong time and a tragedy occurred. please. >> you've been critical of the

current regulations and you've called for big reforms at faa. i'm curious, sir. >> president trump: i made the reforms three days ago. >> what is your message to the american public in weeks and months ahead. should they feel hesitant to fly? and if you could clarify perhaps something that the secretary said when he said the helicopter went on a continuity of government mission. >> president trump: i don't know what that refers to but they were practicing. they do that. they call it practicing and they were -- that's something that should be done. it is only continuity in the sense we want very good people. that has to be in continuity and what they referred to. but it was basically practice and there was a practice that worked out very, very badly. okay?

>> the first question should people be hesitant to fly right now? >> president trump: no, not at all. i do not hesitate to fly. this is something that has been many years that something like this has happened and the collision is just something that we don't expect ever to happen again. we will have the highest level people. we've already hired some of the people that you've already hired for that position long before we knew about this. long before from the time i came in we started going out and getting the best people because i said it is not -- it is not appropriate what they are doing. a tremendous mistake. you know, they like to do things and they like to take them too far. this is sometimes what ends up happening. with that i'm not blaming the controller. i'm saying there are things that you could question like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level and going in opposite directions. it is not a positive. but no, we are already hiring people. flying is very safe.

we have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we'll keep it that way. thank you all very much. thank you very much, everybody. >> harris: the president of the united states taking questions and talking in detail about what he wants to see in the future with regard to aviation and many other areas of government. what was so key there was how he was actually breaking down the idea of maybe the same height or elevation of the planes. you saw the transportation secretary, along with the department of defense secretary along with the president. i want to bring in retired lieutenant colonel gob and he flew blackhawk choppers. the president was breaking down what might have happened. night goggles.

very spoofs i can. your thoughts. >> my first thought is the president has been debriefed more than i have. what i'm doing is assessing things from the video evidence that we have, the audio evidence that we have as well as some internal sources that are near to the organization and detachment flying the blackhawks i have to work through to see what is worth presenting and what belongs to pete hegseth. what i can tell you that makes sense from what i'm seeing is that i think president trump is right that there was an altitude issue. most likely. but what i focus on as a result of that is procedures around washington, d.c., reagan national airspace. very dense airspace, very strict processes and procedures how to get through there fixed wing and focused on the communications that occurred between air traffic control and both aircraft and potentially any

other aircraft in the area. the video shows another fixed wing on departure which could have been confused for the one the blackhawk was asked to pass behind as directed by atc. >> harris: i'm glad you brought that up. the other plane you can see looks like it is taking off and higher elevation than the other two planes. none of them is terribly distanced from the other. >> right. and that's one of the things that we work on as you train pilots over years is airmanship. what looks like something from the ground looks completely different from the air when it comes to depth. so i could see a way where those two fixed wing airplanes, though they look far apart in some angles from a pilot's perspective could have a completely different view of it how close they are. which aircraft atc is talking

about when all you are doing is operating under the pretense and requirement of see and avoid. every pilot will say. you have to avoid other aircraft yourself. atc will help and that is what happened here. we'll see what else comes out of the atc recordings as well as the radar tracks as part of the investigation. >> harris: you heard the president talking about the jobs and wants he wants to take a look at in air traffic control. atc, that will come up, too. great to have your expertise in these moments. coming right after the commander-in-chief it's necessary to be able to break it down. thank you very much. >> thank you, harris. >> harris: now "outnumbered" will begin. this is a "outnumbered" with my cohosts and look upon you and kayleigh mcenany, i'm harris faulkner. joining us lauren simonetti an