CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers apologized on Wednesday night after deleting a tweet that placed blame on President Donald Trump for the deadly midair crash over Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., claiming he “f***ed up” by citing the president’s federal hiring freeze as a potential reason for the horrific accident.
Sellers’ initial post sparked backlash among Trump supporters and right-wing commentators, who called the former Democratic lawmaker “despicable” and a “broken human being” for tying the tragedy to Trump’s executive actions.
Officials said on Thursday that they do not expect any survivors after an American Airlines passenger plane making its landing approach collided with a Black Hawk helicopter that was on a training mission over the D.C. airport. The flight was arriving from Wichita, Kansas, and carried 64 passengers and crew, including several members of the U.S. Figure Skating team. The Army helicopter had three soldiers aboard.
“We probably lost 60 Kansans tonight,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told reporters at a Thursday morning briefing.
While the president took to his social media platform to blame the helicopter pilots and the control tower for the crash, wondering why the helicopter simply “didn’t go up or down,” Sellers shared a January 22 press release from House Democrats condemning Trump’s inaugural day hiring freeze order.
“Hiring air traffic controllers is the number one safety issue according to the entire aviation industry,” House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member Rick Larsen (D-WA) stated. “Instead of working to improve aviation safety and lower costs for hardworking American families, the Administration is choosing to spread bogus DEI claims to justify this decision.”
In his January 20 executive order, the president stated that “no Federal civilian position that is vacant” at the time he was sworn into office shall be filled, and the “freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding.” In a separate “fact sheet” sent out two days later, the White House said the president had signed “a Presidential Memorandum terminating a Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hiring policy that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency.”
It is unclear if the freeze prevents the FAA from hiring new air traffic controllers or if they fall under the executive order’s exemption for military personnel or positions related to national security and public safety.
Alongside his Wednesday night post sharing the Democrats’ statement on “Trump’s dangerous freeze of air traffic control hiring,” Sellers wrote: “8 days ago.” It wasn’t long before he came under fire from the right.
“They are fishing corpses out of the Potomac, families are praying their loved ones miraculously survived, we haven’t the faintest clue yet what caused the crash, and Bakari is already frantically (and publicly!) looking for a way to blame it on Trump,” Washington Free Beacon editor Peter Hasson reacted. “What a broken human being.”
Former NFL sideline reporter turned conservative commentator Michelle Tafoya doubled down on Hasson’s criticism, adding that the CNN pundit was “despicable.” Other right-wing activists and influencers labeled Sellers “pathetic” or merely cursed him out. Former Trump spokesperson Tim Murtaugh, meanwhile, insisted that Democrats had “lied” about Trump’s hiring freeze and that it “exempted” air traffic control employees.
Amid the outcry, Sellers would soon take the tweet down and issue an apology.
“I deleted the post because timing matters. Politics at this point does not,” he wrote. “I f***ed up, I own that. I am very prayerful but I’m also very frustrated upset and disturbed with where we are as a country. I recognize, and I will do better. The only thing that matters is rescuing the survivors, and ensuring this never happens again.”
Sellers’ apology, however, didn’t stem the outrage from the conservative punditry, who demanded repercussions.
“This person should be fired,” Fox News contributor and anti-cancel culture zealot Joe Concha raged. “Because even after exploiting a horrible tragedy for political gain, he *STILL* throws a ‘but I’m also very frustrated upset and disturbed with where we are as a country.’ Which has zero to do with lives lost and families devastated forever. Get out.”
When reached for comment, a CNN spokesperson told The Independent they would let Sellers’ apology speak for itself.