January 31, 2025 • 30 mins
Sean covers the tragedy of another plane crash and the ever-growing concerns that the FAA needs the best and brightest in its workforce!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, thank you, Scott Shannon, thanks to all of
you for being with us. Happy Friday, eight hundred and
nine for one Sean if you want to be a
part of the program. Of course, a top priority has
got to be the families and the people, the sixty
seven people that lost their lives when those black Hawk
Army helicopter crashed into this passenger jet landing at Reagan
(00:25):
National Airport. I mean, could you imagine it is your
family member and you're waking up, you know, to that shock,
you know, and it's I can't imagine the pain that
they feel. However, you know. And I'm gonna pivot here,
not out of insensitivity or for any reason to politicize
(00:48):
what has happened here, but we've got to make sure
we make emergency fixes to the FAA because we're learning
things that should shock the conscience of an a that
have been going on and that that should have not
never been going on. We start with John Solomon's report
we told you about this yesterday, that this mid air
(01:09):
collision was preceded by months and even years of near
misses and safety warnings, and it runs much deeper than that.
As we learn more and more every hour every day,
and we better fix this and fix this fast, or
else this is gonna happen again, and we're gonna have
more mourning families. And I don't want any more morning families.
I don't want the ones we have. I want them
(01:30):
to you know, there were people waiting at the airport,
but they loved ones and that that plane was just
minutes away from landing. And we find out in twenty
twenty three there were nineteen near misses at airports across
the country. It's one of the largest totals in years,
and the same thing last year, including specifically, and I'll
(01:50):
give you the instance in a minute, at Reagan National
multiple collisions were nearly avoided. You know, if you look
at this headline from twenty twenty four May, federal officials
are investigating another close call between planes at Reagan National Airport.
There was one just just a day or two before
this incident. And if you look at the FAA, they
(02:11):
did it under Biden. They actually were looking at America's
airport system. America's quote air traffic control system is suffering
from quality control issues and staffing shortages that are putting
safety at risk. Well, that should have been a five
alarm fire for the country, and I know, you know,
people like you know, Mayor Pothole, Pete Buddha Judge was
(02:34):
busy with his billion dollar, you know, racist road project.
I still don't even understand what the hell he was
trying to do with that thing. But and then dealing
with climate control and the climate initiatives and DEI initiatives,
but they weren't focused on what would they be being
very specifically warned about. And then we learned that the
(02:55):
control tower staffing at Reagan National, the busiest airport in
the country, was not normal and isn't normal most days,
but it wasn't normal during last night's deadly crash. One
air traffic control worker was managing the helicopters in the planes.
Guess what, That's a job normally done by two people,
not one person. You know, we don't know why the
(03:17):
helicopter was flying so high above what is normal two
hundred feet did. We have no explanation for this at all?
You know why they didn't listen to air traffic control.
And we're going to get into the issue of the
pilots and involved in this case in a second. But
you know, one air traffic controller doing the job normally
(03:38):
done by two people is unacceptable. They not only have
to have a staff, they have to have an emergency
backup staff. This is not you don't compromise safety.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
The CEO of United Airlines warned that ongoing air traffic
controller shortages are major problem. Airlines knew about it, and
I've been been outspoken complaining about it. You know, these
other people like you know, during the Biden Harris administration
and pothole Pete, they were preoccupied with intolerant roads and
(04:11):
bridges and a billion dollars for racist road I mean,
what does that even mean? And you know climate change
and DEI It's not a secret across the entire Biden administration.
DEI p was prioritized over meritocracy. We can't have that
in this country.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
What we didn't know is this has been years in
the making and this was first adopted in twenty thirteen
under the Obama administration, they launched this outreach program for
diversity and inclusion. Democrats have been sneaking this under the
radar for a long time. The word woke was not
really as prominent in our vernacular during the first Trump administration,
(04:53):
but by the way, all of these things were taken
off the FAA website as soon as Trump signed his
DEI initiative. Now that it's become front and center in
the country. But anyway, in what was on the fa
website up until January twenty second, two days after Donald
Trump became president and signed the executive action on DEI,
(05:14):
you know, was a push to higher workers with, among
other things, severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems. Now, can
anyone explain why that would be a matter of policy.
We have stories out today of a thousand applicants that
were not hired because they didn't meet that that's they
(05:37):
didn't check that certain box. They could have had more personnel,
they could have been fully staffed.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They if they.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Didn't put these policies in place and implement them on
steroids and human growth hormone under Biden and Harris have
a report going back from the Washington Times. A twenty
thirteen FAA document raised the issue in stark terms, how
much of a change in job performance is acceptable to
(06:05):
achieve diversity goals? Well, I don't think you know. If
you work as an air traffic controller. First of all,
it's a hard job. I know, people that do it.
I know people that have done it. You better have
the ability to multitask at a very very high level.
You better have past decision making qualities. That is not
(06:27):
something the average person. Is not a job for the
average person. This is a job for somebody with a
very very specific set of skills that can manage a
multitask many things at once and have a lot of
balls in the air because there's a lot of planes
in the sky. It was a twenty twenty four lawsuit
that alleged the FAA turned away that the thousand air
(06:49):
traffic control applicants solely based on race alone, and now
what they're understaffed. Tell me how that makes sense, you know,
But it turns out for years that woke politics. We're
putting our lives in jeopardy, and we just didn't know,
And we had canaries in the coal mine and rising
(07:11):
incidents of near crashes, and we didn't pay any attention
to it. And this, in other words, this whole thing
was preventable. I know it's not good news for the families,
and I don't want to add to people's pain. I
can't imagine the suffering they're going through, But we do
have to prevent this from happening again, and we've got
(07:32):
to move quickly. A helicopter and passenger plane nearly collided
over Reagan the night before Wednesday's mid mid air collision.
The night before again, Solomon ausinnews dot com, another plane
headed to Reagan National almost crashed into another helicopter on
Tuesday night. The night before this, American Airlines like collided
(07:56):
with a military helicopter, and Republic Airways Flight for fourteen
was forced to abort its first landing attempt at the
airport on Tuesday after air traffic control warned that a
helicopter was in the vicinity and anyway. They executed a
what's called a go round maneuver and safely landed a
(08:18):
few minutes later. Now, if you're on the track to
land an airplane, I do happen to know a lot
about flight. I have a lot of friends that are pilots.
It's that is your lane, period into sentence. Everyone else
has to stay out of your way. Both There's a
helicopter over Georgetown northbound three hundred feet again flying above altitude.
The air traffic controller told the plane. The pilot confirmed
(08:40):
the warning, was told to go around the helicopter and
try and land again, which it did. No plane landing
should have to make that maneuver. Thank goodness that that
pilot had to be good at his job. The incident
occurred just the night before American Airlines, you know, collided.
That flight collided with the black Hall helicopters sixty seven
(09:01):
lives this day. By the way, the two black boxes,
the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the
American Airlines plane. It looks like they know where it
is and it's being recovered. But if The Washington Times
goes in. Critics have long worn that the FAAS focus
on DEI diverted time resources from air travel safety. It
hobbled the agency as it grappled with air traffic controls shortages,
(09:26):
antiquicated monitoring equipment, and an increase of near misses on
crowded airport runways. Maybe instead of a billion dollars to
make roads less racist, you know, maybe that money could
have been spent updating avionics and monitoring equipment for air
traffic control to keep American flyers safe. An unidentified source
(09:47):
telling the AP that the air traffic control controller in
charge of monitoring the airspace at the time of the
collision was performing the work of two people. Again confirming
that air safety concern prompted eleven Republican Attorneys Generals to
write the FAA last year in question the administration's hiring
(10:07):
practices and priorities. This has been going on under the radar.
I read the news every day, and this is not
something that caught my attention. In twenty twenty two, the
FAA pledged to diversify their workforce by rethinking their hiring
practices and administration officials to sign long term goals to
amplify diversity, accessibility, LGBTQ issues. I'm about meritocracy, you know,
(10:33):
remember this too under the Trump years. If you care
about opportunity in an opportunity society, the president in the
modern error that created record low after record low unemployment
for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace,
African American youth unemployment. That was Donald Trump, and he
(10:57):
didn't use it by implementing Affirmative action or DEI hiring practices.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But the FAA declaring twenty twenty three the Year of Inclusion,
while ignoring warnings about staff shortages and a lack of
safety and preparedness in the air and the focus you know,
began under the Obama administration with they in this article
point out more than three thousand rejected applicants filed the
(11:25):
lawsuit claiming discrimination. The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in
twenty eighteen after Congress enacted a law banning as US.
But that's as far as it went. I mean, and
then you find out, like we're finding out today, both
West Point and the Air Force Academy have been awarding
cadets degrees and diversity, equity and inclusion studies. I mean,
(11:47):
that's our military. Now, it's coming to an end. It's
already at an end, and President Trump blew the lid
off the way DEIS impacted hiring practices anyway. As of
January eighth, knowing Trump's coming in, West Point permitted as
late as January eighth, the West Point permitted cadets to
minor and diversity Equity and Inclusion. As of January ninth,
(12:08):
the Air Force Academy still offered a DEI minor, according
to Internet archives. Around the same time the DEI miners disappeared,
President Trump and died DEI programs in federal agencies, you know,
Visa v. That executive order. I mean, does any of
this make sense to you? The military air traffic control.
(12:30):
There are certain jobs that have got to be the best,
the brightest, the most qualified, no other consideration, and this
is one of them. I mean, Now, we learned about
this controlled tower shortage, and we learned about you know,
the understaffing, and we're learning about all sorts of things
(12:51):
regarding us. You know, runways are seeing more near misses
than ever before. This is out of control and it
can be fixed, and it must be fixed if Americans
want to fly in safe skys. You have fourteen, you know,
great skaters from the national team, among the flyers from
the championship. Now, their life isn't any more important than
(13:13):
any of the other lives, but I mean, these are
some of the most gifted and talented skaters. We'll never
see them again.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
One of the pilots of the American Airlines Commuter Jet
was engaged to be married. How do you think that
poor woman is feeling today? If you want to know
to America's ten busiest runways, Reagan is number one, Lax
number two, Newark number three, Chicago number four, the second
one in Newark.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
There are actually two.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
LaGuardia and Dallas and San Diego all up there, you know.
And then people upset what Donald Trump brought these issues
up yesterday. He's bringing it up because it's got to
be solved and got to be And Pete Buddha Judge
blasting Trump after the President excoriated him.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Where it was Buddha Judge, why was he.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
More concerned about racist roads when they have equipment that
is outdated and a shortage of air traffic controllers? Tell
me if that sounds like the right priority to you.
A helicopter colliding. Now, one of the reasons blackhawks often
don't have the warning the Tea wax t cast system
is because they fly in formation often and they'd be
(14:24):
going off all the time. That's part of the reason
that they may need to be reconsidered, especially if they're
flying at a airports like Reagan National. But anyway, put
that aside, there's no reason. The day before this mid
air collision, they nearly had another mid air collision at
the same airport involving another helicopter. And why was it
(14:47):
above the two hundred foot foot limit here, nobody's been
able to answer that question. NTSP member Todd Inman was
asked by Fox Business about whether the helicopter's altitude played
a role right now. We're not ruling anything in or
anything out, but I would be very careful to anyone
who's listening to this to rely upon the shelf software
(15:08):
speculation that they're seeing online.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Our job is to get the absolute facts. I got it.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
We'll get the black boxes, but it is above what
normal altitude is. And also it's the responsibility of every
other aircraft. If somebody is on approach and about to
land and they're on their track, that it's the obligation
of every other aircraft to stay out of that aircraft's way,
and of course, as managed by air Traffic Control ATC,
(15:35):
that's their job. One nts B member says, we know
where the Blackhawk helicopters black boxes are.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That's good news.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Another nts B member says it will take several days
to extract information from those black boxes. A former Blackhawk
pilot suggests adding collision avoidance systems to aircrafts. This is
what we've been talking about now for days and last
you know, could you imagine a Wichita pastor a Kansas
(16:04):
pastor who helped the families as they arrived at the
airport in Wichita on Wednesday night searching for news about
their loved ones. I mean, everybody was a quote in
stun silence. Could you just imagine. I just feels so
bad for these families, But I don't want it to
(16:24):
happen again. Why are you bringing these issues up? Because
they need to be addressed immediately. We can't have this.
President Trump is now out there and he's very clear.
Ending weeks of speculation, the White House confirming again today
that the President will be leveling aggressive tariffs on US
(16:45):
trading partners. Caroline Levitt, who's done a great job as
White House Press Secretary, he said Trump will be implementing
twenty five percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, as well
as a ten percent duty on Canada and retaliation for
the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced then allowed to
distribute into our country. That the White House provide a
few details. These are promises made and promises kept by
(17:08):
the President. Now, there are a group of conservatives out
there that are just dead set against the President ever
talking about tarriffts. Oh no, no, it's going to be
it and liberals are saying it's a tax on the
American people.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
How Donald Trump can be on the political scene since
twenty fifteen and them not understand him at any level
is It's beyond my comprehension. Frankly, let me tell you
what Donald Trump and tariffs means. It means this is
the beginning of a negotiation. Remember he got Canada and
(17:42):
Mexico to get rid of AFTA and we got a
better trade deal. He got to remain in Mexico policy,
you know, building the wall. All of these things factor
into the president's thinking, and he's using something called leverage
in negotiation. It's called the art of the deal, if
you want to put it in his parlance. He's negotiating.
(18:03):
I know, I know Donald Trump as well as anybody.
Everything with him is transactional. Mister President. Can I have
an interview? I'd like you for forty two minutes that'll
cover or forty four minutes that'll cover the full hour.
I'll give you fifteen, so I don't ask for forty
four minutes. I start higher. Can I have Can I
(18:25):
have a little over an hour? I'll give you thirty?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
How about forty five. I'll give you forty. I'll take
the forty and then go the forty forty four that
I need. It's a negotiation. You just got to know
Trump to understand it. Linda, how true is that? And
then the other part is when he starts talking, he
doesn't want to stop.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That. I don't know anyone else like that at all.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I got his team like in front of like
they get behind him, just off to the side of
the camera and they're like, you know, roll in their
hands are a rap, rap rap rap rap. And at
one point I just did in the live interview, I
hadn't asked him about the economy, I hadn't asked him
about Iran, I hadn't asked him about China and Russian
and I'm like, oh no, I got so much ground
to cover. And he was spending a lot of time
(19:09):
talking about California. He literally said I don't care, and
they said all right, And at that point the rap
signal stopped. You know, people think, well, you're interrupting the president.
I'm like, I'm trying to go. I already got his
answer on California as far as I was concerned. However,
I think people at home. Need also want to hear
about the economy, more on immigration, more on Iran, China, Russia,
(19:34):
important questions. So you got to kind of balance it
as a host. Sometimes it's hard, although he's a very
easy interview. In many ways it looks like another Trump
bashing NBC news star Chucky Todd has gone the way
of CNN fake news Acosta. They're both out the door,
gone with the wind. Todd says he's leaving NBC because
the national media has lost the trust to the American people.
(19:58):
I wonder whose fault that is, because our ratings have never,
thanks to all of you, been higher. You know, Todd
comes from a noticeably less visible presence, you know, from
the day he took over, I mean the day that
there'll never be another guy like Tim Russer. He's a
very special man. Tim Russell would call and ask my
opinion on issues. Tim Russell would come on the show.
(20:20):
Tim Russer came on TV. Tom Brokaw used to come on.
Peter Jennings would come in my radio studio, So would
come on TV. Hospitals now beginning to implement Trump's ban
on transgender surgery for miners. Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia, the
nation's capital, said that they have stopped transgender procedures for
(20:40):
miners as they evaluate Donald Trump's new executive order. Good
it is a life altering decision. You cannot go back.
It's over. And you know, if we can't sell a
beer or a cigarette or a vape to anybody under
twenty one, maybe the same standard should apply. Or if
(21:03):
you can't serve in the military till eighteen, make it eighteen.
Whatever the age is, but it certainly isn't twelve or
thirteen or eleven. Senior FBI officials have been told that
they will be fired next week if they don't resign first.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Thank goodness. It's sad. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I have my cousin, So my grandfather's brother had two sons, well,
he had three. One was a Christian brother, the other
two were FBI agents. And I've said this before. Billy
Flynn is alive and well he wrote a book and
he mentioned me in it and praised me way more
than I deserve. But he did put in the story
(21:43):
that I've told. I grew up and they were deity
in our family. I mean, they had reached the highest
level considering their parents had all come from Ireland and
they made it to the FBI, and he loves the
FBI and it was the world's premiere law enforcement agency.
Little little changes after Herbert Hoover is like we had
(22:07):
the premier intelligence agencies, et cetera. And the Church Committee,
you know, dealt with some problems at one point. Now
we have to clean it out again. Several senior FBI officials,
the people that have been promoted by the likes of
Chris Ray and James Comy, they have been told to
leave the agency or expect to be fired next week. Well,
(22:29):
unfortunately as part of the weaponized DJ and an FBI
that's been weaponized that hasn't done its job. And one
big example, glaring example, is enforcing the laws at our
border and then going after you know, pro life, you know,
peaceful protesters and moms and dads like Linda school board
(22:51):
meetings that are against woke policies or gender affirming care.
They you know, their priorities have been screwed up. Were
those people involved in the witch hunt against Donald Trump?
You know, Trump is telling senior FBI ranks resign or
you're going to be fired. Federal employees have been ordered
to remove their pronouns from email signatures by the end
(23:15):
of the day. This is an ABC News report. Employees
at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from
their email signatures by today, Friday afternoon. According to internal
memos obtained by ABC News, pronouns other information not permitted
in the policy must be removed from the employees signatures
(23:35):
by five pm on Friday. Oh, have about an hour
and fourteen minutes left before the deadline. Federal employees at
the Department of Transportation, they got the directive all across
federal agencies. The president also refocusing the FBI from chasing
you January six ers and rounding up Harris Biden illegals. Yeah,
(24:00):
maybe they should focus on finding the terrorists that we
know are in the country, known terrorists, non murderers, rapists,
known cartel members, known drug dealers, known gang members. I
think that's a that's reprioritizing the FBI back to it's
what it should be involved in. The anti Trump. FBI
agent we told you yesterday responsible for opening the Jack
(24:22):
Smith elector case against the President. Now new information from
a whistleblower in case brought by John Solomon, reported by
John Solomon justinhnews dot Com, which I think is nothing
but progress. And we have so much news out there,
it's hard to get it all. And this is the
hardest thing to do. You know, we'll we'll get back
(24:45):
into We spent a lot of time yesterday on these nominees.
Democrats were averting to form. You know what, They're just
angry after the election. They were in a state of
shock and then denial and now and grief and now
that is now they've now evolved into the rage and
they've reverted to form, which is just to go after
(25:05):
Donald Trump. On the immigration front. A gun used in
Vermont and against a border agent and a border agent
shootout is linked to a double murder suspect according to prosecutors.
Good grief, it's so dangerous these jobs.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
The murder of a Pennsylvania couple is linked to the
deadly shooting of this Vermont patrol agent. That case in Delaware,
that couple killed in their home in late twenty two
now linked to the line of duty shooting death of
that border patrol agent in Vermont. By the way, why
did Democrats defend violent criminal illegal immigrants against Trump?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Braids?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Why I'll tell you what I think it's come down to.
Democrats would rather score key political points and run on
a narrative that they're the most compassionate people on earth.
But then I'm having compassion for the murder the Americans murdered, raped,
and victims of violent crime. Makes absolutely no sense at all. Anyway,
(26:12):
there are reports out there about some trans cult but
I have not been able to independently verify all this,
so I'm going to hold off and we'll have more
on that on Monday. US sheriff could face prosecution. Acting
US Deputy Attorney General called on Thursday for an investigation
of an upstate New York sheriff who released and undocumented
illegal immigrant from custody, and apparent escalation of the Trump
(26:35):
administration's campaign against sanctuary cities. Anyway, who was named Deputy
Attorney General last week, He said that the US Attorney
for the Northern District of New York is looking into
the failure of the sheriff to honor a federal arrest warrant.
Let me tell you what that's called, aiding in a
betting and law breaking. If I did it, I go
to jail. Especially with Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, a
(26:59):
notorious migrant gang expanding its presence in democratic cities as
ICE is struggling to keep up. In this case Aurora, Colorado.
Pretty scary what's been going on there. No immigrants should
be detained. As a left wing nonprofit, really this is
a pretty interesting They're called the Acacias Center for Justice,
(27:20):
left wing group. They say that the federal immigration contract
claims that the immigration system is intentionally designed to exploit
black and brown people. Is spending apparently overseeing seven hundred
and sixty nine million dollars providing lawyers for illegal aliens,
and the group says that its aim is to provide
due process. You see, when you enter the country illegally,
(27:43):
you're not an American citizen. You don't have the same
rights as American citizens. Anyway, eight hundred and nine to
four to one, Shawn outgoing DNC chair Little Late says
Democrats they should have stuck with Biden. California got to
give a tip of the hat to Gavin Newsom. I
know you heard me right. He apparently has stopped a
(28:03):
vote to Trump proof proof the state, avoiding public debate
overfunding that protects the illegals with felony convictions. You know what,
that's going to result in a rest of a lot
of officials in California. If they try and interfere, they
should look into the supremacy clause of the US Constitution.
All Right, you voted big government out, you've voted aficient
(28:25):
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Speaker 2 (29:30):
Unity uncovers the real truth. It's about the politics of DC.
He's your watchdog on Baby.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Brother, every day entity is on right now.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
All right, we have a lot to cover today.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
We'll check in with our aviation experts when we come
back and what we have learned about this midair crash
over the Potomac. Also, this group Moms behind Make America
Healthy Again. They're having a huge impact helping RFK Junior.
We'll get to that. My interview with JD Van's coming up.
Your call's coming up eight hundred and ninety four one
(30:10):
SEAWAN on this Friday
All right, thank you, Scott Shannon, thanks to all of
you for being with us. Happy Friday, eight hundred and
nine for one Sean if you want to be a
part of the program. Of course, a top priority has
got to be the families and the people, the sixty
seven people that lost their lives when those black Hawk
Army helicopter crashed into this passenger jet landing at Reagan
(00:25):
National Airport. I mean, could you imagine it is your
family member and you're waking up, you know, to that shock,
you know, and it's I can't imagine the pain that
they feel. However, you know. And I'm gonna pivot here,
not out of insensitivity or for any reason to politicize
(00:48):
what has happened here, but we've got to make sure
we make emergency fixes to the FAA because we're learning
things that should shock the conscience of an a that
have been going on and that that should have not
never been going on. We start with John Solomon's report
we told you about this yesterday, that this mid air
(01:09):
collision was preceded by months and even years of near
misses and safety warnings, and it runs much deeper than that.
As we learn more and more every hour every day,
and we better fix this and fix this fast, or
else this is gonna happen again, and we're gonna have
more mourning families. And I don't want any more morning families.
I don't want the ones we have. I want them
(01:30):
to you know, there were people waiting at the airport,
but they loved ones and that that plane was just
minutes away from landing. And we find out in twenty
twenty three there were nineteen near misses at airports across
the country. It's one of the largest totals in years,
and the same thing last year, including specifically, and I'll
(01:50):
give you the instance in a minute, at Reagan National
multiple collisions were nearly avoided. You know, if you look
at this headline from twenty twenty four May, federal officials
are investigating another close call between planes at Reagan National Airport.
There was one just just a day or two before
this incident. And if you look at the FAA, they
(02:11):
did it under Biden. They actually were looking at America's
airport system. America's quote air traffic control system is suffering
from quality control issues and staffing shortages that are putting
safety at risk. Well, that should have been a five
alarm fire for the country, and I know, you know,
people like you know, Mayor Pothole, Pete Buddha Judge was
(02:34):
busy with his billion dollar, you know, racist road project.
I still don't even understand what the hell he was
trying to do with that thing. But and then dealing
with climate control and the climate initiatives and DEI initiatives,
but they weren't focused on what would they be being
very specifically warned about. And then we learned that the
(02:55):
control tower staffing at Reagan National, the busiest airport in
the country, was not normal and isn't normal most days,
but it wasn't normal during last night's deadly crash. One
air traffic control worker was managing the helicopters in the planes.
Guess what, That's a job normally done by two people,
not one person. You know, we don't know why the
(03:17):
helicopter was flying so high above what is normal two
hundred feet did. We have no explanation for this at all?
You know why they didn't listen to air traffic control.
And we're going to get into the issue of the
pilots and involved in this case in a second. But
you know, one air traffic controller doing the job normally
(03:38):
done by two people is unacceptable. They not only have
to have a staff, they have to have an emergency
backup staff. This is not you don't compromise safety.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
The CEO of United Airlines warned that ongoing air traffic
controller shortages are major problem. Airlines knew about it, and
I've been been outspoken complaining about it. You know, these
other people like you know, during the Biden Harris administration
and pothole Pete, they were preoccupied with intolerant roads and
(04:11):
bridges and a billion dollars for racist road I mean,
what does that even mean? And you know climate change
and DEI It's not a secret across the entire Biden administration.
DEI p was prioritized over meritocracy. We can't have that
in this country.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
What we didn't know is this has been years in
the making and this was first adopted in twenty thirteen
under the Obama administration, they launched this outreach program for
diversity and inclusion. Democrats have been sneaking this under the
radar for a long time. The word woke was not
really as prominent in our vernacular during the first Trump administration,
(04:53):
but by the way, all of these things were taken
off the FAA website as soon as Trump signed his
DEI initiative. Now that it's become front and center in
the country. But anyway, in what was on the fa
website up until January twenty second, two days after Donald
Trump became president and signed the executive action on DEI,
(05:14):
you know, was a push to higher workers with, among
other things, severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems. Now, can
anyone explain why that would be a matter of policy.
We have stories out today of a thousand applicants that
were not hired because they didn't meet that that's they
(05:37):
didn't check that certain box. They could have had more personnel,
they could have been fully staffed.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They if they.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Didn't put these policies in place and implement them on
steroids and human growth hormone under Biden and Harris have
a report going back from the Washington Times. A twenty
thirteen FAA document raised the issue in stark terms, how
much of a change in job performance is acceptable to
(06:05):
achieve diversity goals? Well, I don't think you know. If
you work as an air traffic controller. First of all,
it's a hard job. I know, people that do it.
I know people that have done it. You better have
the ability to multitask at a very very high level.
You better have past decision making qualities. That is not
(06:27):
something the average person. Is not a job for the
average person. This is a job for somebody with a
very very specific set of skills that can manage a
multitask many things at once and have a lot of
balls in the air because there's a lot of planes
in the sky. It was a twenty twenty four lawsuit
that alleged the FAA turned away that the thousand air
(06:49):
traffic control applicants solely based on race alone, and now
what they're understaffed. Tell me how that makes sense, you know,
But it turns out for years that woke politics. We're
putting our lives in jeopardy, and we just didn't know,
And we had canaries in the coal mine and rising
(07:11):
incidents of near crashes, and we didn't pay any attention
to it. And this, in other words, this whole thing
was preventable. I know it's not good news for the families,
and I don't want to add to people's pain. I
can't imagine the suffering they're going through, But we do
have to prevent this from happening again, and we've got
(07:32):
to move quickly. A helicopter and passenger plane nearly collided
over Reagan the night before Wednesday's mid mid air collision.
The night before again, Solomon ausinnews dot com, another plane
headed to Reagan National almost crashed into another helicopter on
Tuesday night. The night before this, American Airlines like collided
(07:56):
with a military helicopter, and Republic Airways Flight for fourteen
was forced to abort its first landing attempt at the
airport on Tuesday after air traffic control warned that a
helicopter was in the vicinity and anyway. They executed a
what's called a go round maneuver and safely landed a
(08:18):
few minutes later. Now, if you're on the track to
land an airplane, I do happen to know a lot
about flight. I have a lot of friends that are pilots.
It's that is your lane, period into sentence. Everyone else
has to stay out of your way. Both There's a
helicopter over Georgetown northbound three hundred feet again flying above altitude.
The air traffic controller told the plane. The pilot confirmed
(08:40):
the warning, was told to go around the helicopter and
try and land again, which it did. No plane landing
should have to make that maneuver. Thank goodness that that
pilot had to be good at his job. The incident
occurred just the night before American Airlines, you know, collided.
That flight collided with the black Hall helicopters sixty seven
(09:01):
lives this day. By the way, the two black boxes,
the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the
American Airlines plane. It looks like they know where it
is and it's being recovered. But if The Washington Times
goes in. Critics have long worn that the FAAS focus
on DEI diverted time resources from air travel safety. It
hobbled the agency as it grappled with air traffic controls shortages,
(09:26):
antiquicated monitoring equipment, and an increase of near misses on
crowded airport runways. Maybe instead of a billion dollars to
make roads less racist, you know, maybe that money could
have been spent updating avionics and monitoring equipment for air
traffic control to keep American flyers safe. An unidentified source
(09:47):
telling the AP that the air traffic control controller in
charge of monitoring the airspace at the time of the
collision was performing the work of two people. Again confirming
that air safety concern prompted eleven Republican Attorneys Generals to
write the FAA last year in question the administration's hiring
(10:07):
practices and priorities. This has been going on under the radar.
I read the news every day, and this is not
something that caught my attention. In twenty twenty two, the
FAA pledged to diversify their workforce by rethinking their hiring
practices and administration officials to sign long term goals to
amplify diversity, accessibility, LGBTQ issues. I'm about meritocracy, you know,
(10:33):
remember this too under the Trump years. If you care
about opportunity in an opportunity society, the president in the
modern error that created record low after record low unemployment
for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace,
African American youth unemployment. That was Donald Trump, and he
(10:57):
didn't use it by implementing Affirmative action or DEI hiring practices.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But the FAA declaring twenty twenty three the Year of Inclusion,
while ignoring warnings about staff shortages and a lack of
safety and preparedness in the air and the focus you know,
began under the Obama administration with they in this article
point out more than three thousand rejected applicants filed the
(11:25):
lawsuit claiming discrimination. The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in
twenty eighteen after Congress enacted a law banning as US.
But that's as far as it went. I mean, and
then you find out, like we're finding out today, both
West Point and the Air Force Academy have been awarding
cadets degrees and diversity, equity and inclusion studies. I mean,
(11:47):
that's our military. Now, it's coming to an end. It's
already at an end, and President Trump blew the lid
off the way DEIS impacted hiring practices anyway. As of
January eighth, knowing Trump's coming in, West Point permitted as
late as January eighth, the West Point permitted cadets to
minor and diversity Equity and Inclusion. As of January ninth,
(12:08):
the Air Force Academy still offered a DEI minor, according
to Internet archives. Around the same time the DEI miners disappeared,
President Trump and died DEI programs in federal agencies, you know,
Visa v. That executive order. I mean, does any of
this make sense to you? The military air traffic control.
(12:30):
There are certain jobs that have got to be the best,
the brightest, the most qualified, no other consideration, and this
is one of them. I mean, Now, we learned about
this controlled tower shortage, and we learned about you know,
the understaffing, and we're learning about all sorts of things
(12:51):
regarding us. You know, runways are seeing more near misses
than ever before. This is out of control and it
can be fixed, and it must be fixed if Americans
want to fly in safe skys. You have fourteen, you know,
great skaters from the national team, among the flyers from
the championship. Now, their life isn't any more important than
(13:13):
any of the other lives, but I mean, these are
some of the most gifted and talented skaters. We'll never
see them again.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
One of the pilots of the American Airlines Commuter Jet
was engaged to be married. How do you think that
poor woman is feeling today? If you want to know
to America's ten busiest runways, Reagan is number one, Lax
number two, Newark number three, Chicago number four, the second
one in Newark.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
There are actually two.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
LaGuardia and Dallas and San Diego all up there, you know.
And then people upset what Donald Trump brought these issues
up yesterday. He's bringing it up because it's got to
be solved and got to be And Pete Buddha Judge
blasting Trump after the President excoriated him.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Where it was Buddha Judge, why was he.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
More concerned about racist roads when they have equipment that
is outdated and a shortage of air traffic controllers? Tell
me if that sounds like the right priority to you.
A helicopter colliding. Now, one of the reasons blackhawks often
don't have the warning the Tea wax t cast system
is because they fly in formation often and they'd be
(14:24):
going off all the time. That's part of the reason
that they may need to be reconsidered, especially if they're
flying at a airports like Reagan National. But anyway, put
that aside, there's no reason. The day before this mid
air collision, they nearly had another mid air collision at
the same airport involving another helicopter. And why was it
(14:47):
above the two hundred foot foot limit here, nobody's been
able to answer that question. NTSP member Todd Inman was
asked by Fox Business about whether the helicopter's altitude played
a role right now. We're not ruling anything in or
anything out, but I would be very careful to anyone
who's listening to this to rely upon the shelf software
(15:08):
speculation that they're seeing online.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Our job is to get the absolute facts. I got it.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
We'll get the black boxes, but it is above what
normal altitude is. And also it's the responsibility of every
other aircraft. If somebody is on approach and about to
land and they're on their track, that it's the obligation
of every other aircraft to stay out of that aircraft's way,
and of course, as managed by air Traffic Control ATC,
(15:35):
that's their job. One nts B member says, we know
where the Blackhawk helicopters black boxes are.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That's good news.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Another nts B member says it will take several days
to extract information from those black boxes. A former Blackhawk
pilot suggests adding collision avoidance systems to aircrafts. This is
what we've been talking about now for days and last
you know, could you imagine a Wichita pastor a Kansas
(16:04):
pastor who helped the families as they arrived at the
airport in Wichita on Wednesday night searching for news about
their loved ones. I mean, everybody was a quote in
stun silence. Could you just imagine. I just feels so
bad for these families, But I don't want it to
(16:24):
happen again. Why are you bringing these issues up? Because
they need to be addressed immediately. We can't have this.
President Trump is now out there and he's very clear.
Ending weeks of speculation, the White House confirming again today
that the President will be leveling aggressive tariffs on US
(16:45):
trading partners. Caroline Levitt, who's done a great job as
White House Press Secretary, he said Trump will be implementing
twenty five percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, as well
as a ten percent duty on Canada and retaliation for
the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced then allowed to
distribute into our country. That the White House provide a
few details. These are promises made and promises kept by
(17:08):
the President. Now, there are a group of conservatives out
there that are just dead set against the President ever
talking about tarriffts. Oh no, no, it's going to be
it and liberals are saying it's a tax on the
American people.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
How Donald Trump can be on the political scene since
twenty fifteen and them not understand him at any level
is It's beyond my comprehension. Frankly, let me tell you
what Donald Trump and tariffs means. It means this is
the beginning of a negotiation. Remember he got Canada and
(17:42):
Mexico to get rid of AFTA and we got a
better trade deal. He got to remain in Mexico policy,
you know, building the wall. All of these things factor
into the president's thinking, and he's using something called leverage
in negotiation. It's called the art of the deal, if
you want to put it in his parlance. He's negotiating.
(18:03):
I know, I know Donald Trump as well as anybody.
Everything with him is transactional. Mister President. Can I have
an interview? I'd like you for forty two minutes that'll
cover or forty four minutes that'll cover the full hour.
I'll give you fifteen, so I don't ask for forty
four minutes. I start higher. Can I have Can I
(18:25):
have a little over an hour? I'll give you thirty?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
How about forty five. I'll give you forty. I'll take
the forty and then go the forty forty four that
I need. It's a negotiation. You just got to know
Trump to understand it. Linda, how true is that? And
then the other part is when he starts talking, he
doesn't want to stop.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That. I don't know anyone else like that at all.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I got his team like in front of like
they get behind him, just off to the side of
the camera and they're like, you know, roll in their
hands are a rap, rap rap rap rap. And at
one point I just did in the live interview, I
hadn't asked him about the economy, I hadn't asked him
about Iran, I hadn't asked him about China and Russian
and I'm like, oh no, I got so much ground
to cover. And he was spending a lot of time
(19:09):
talking about California. He literally said I don't care, and
they said all right, And at that point the rap
signal stopped. You know, people think, well, you're interrupting the president.
I'm like, I'm trying to go. I already got his
answer on California as far as I was concerned. However,
I think people at home. Need also want to hear
about the economy, more on immigration, more on Iran, China, Russia,
(19:34):
important questions. So you got to kind of balance it
as a host. Sometimes it's hard, although he's a very
easy interview. In many ways it looks like another Trump
bashing NBC news star Chucky Todd has gone the way
of CNN fake news Acosta. They're both out the door,
gone with the wind. Todd says he's leaving NBC because
the national media has lost the trust to the American people.
(19:58):
I wonder whose fault that is, because our ratings have never,
thanks to all of you, been higher. You know, Todd
comes from a noticeably less visible presence, you know, from
the day he took over, I mean the day that
there'll never be another guy like Tim Russer. He's a
very special man. Tim Russell would call and ask my
opinion on issues. Tim Russell would come on the show.
(20:20):
Tim Russer came on TV. Tom Brokaw used to come on.
Peter Jennings would come in my radio studio, So would
come on TV. Hospitals now beginning to implement Trump's ban
on transgender surgery for miners. Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia, the
nation's capital, said that they have stopped transgender procedures for
(20:40):
miners as they evaluate Donald Trump's new executive order. Good
it is a life altering decision. You cannot go back.
It's over. And you know, if we can't sell a
beer or a cigarette or a vape to anybody under
twenty one, maybe the same standard should apply. Or if
(21:03):
you can't serve in the military till eighteen, make it eighteen.
Whatever the age is, but it certainly isn't twelve or
thirteen or eleven. Senior FBI officials have been told that
they will be fired next week if they don't resign first.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Thank goodness. It's sad. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I have my cousin, So my grandfather's brother had two sons, well,
he had three. One was a Christian brother, the other
two were FBI agents. And I've said this before. Billy
Flynn is alive and well he wrote a book and
he mentioned me in it and praised me way more
than I deserve. But he did put in the story
(21:43):
that I've told. I grew up and they were deity
in our family. I mean, they had reached the highest
level considering their parents had all come from Ireland and
they made it to the FBI, and he loves the
FBI and it was the world's premiere law enforcement agency.
Little little changes after Herbert Hoover is like we had
(22:07):
the premier intelligence agencies, et cetera. And the Church Committee,
you know, dealt with some problems at one point. Now
we have to clean it out again. Several senior FBI officials,
the people that have been promoted by the likes of
Chris Ray and James Comy, they have been told to
leave the agency or expect to be fired next week. Well,
(22:29):
unfortunately as part of the weaponized DJ and an FBI
that's been weaponized that hasn't done its job. And one
big example, glaring example, is enforcing the laws at our
border and then going after you know, pro life, you know,
peaceful protesters and moms and dads like Linda school board
(22:51):
meetings that are against woke policies or gender affirming care.
They you know, their priorities have been screwed up. Were
those people involved in the witch hunt against Donald Trump?
You know, Trump is telling senior FBI ranks resign or
you're going to be fired. Federal employees have been ordered
to remove their pronouns from email signatures by the end
(23:15):
of the day. This is an ABC News report. Employees
at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from
their email signatures by today, Friday afternoon. According to internal
memos obtained by ABC News, pronouns other information not permitted
in the policy must be removed from the employees signatures
(23:35):
by five pm on Friday. Oh, have about an hour
and fourteen minutes left before the deadline. Federal employees at
the Department of Transportation, they got the directive all across
federal agencies. The president also refocusing the FBI from chasing
you January six ers and rounding up Harris Biden illegals. Yeah,
(24:00):
maybe they should focus on finding the terrorists that we
know are in the country, known terrorists, non murderers, rapists,
known cartel members, known drug dealers, known gang members. I
think that's a that's reprioritizing the FBI back to it's
what it should be involved in. The anti Trump. FBI
agent we told you yesterday responsible for opening the Jack
(24:22):
Smith elector case against the President. Now new information from
a whistleblower in case brought by John Solomon, reported by
John Solomon justinhnews dot Com, which I think is nothing
but progress. And we have so much news out there,
it's hard to get it all. And this is the
hardest thing to do. You know, we'll we'll get back
(24:45):
into We spent a lot of time yesterday on these nominees.
Democrats were averting to form. You know what, They're just
angry after the election. They were in a state of
shock and then denial and now and grief and now
that is now they've now evolved into the rage and
they've reverted to form, which is just to go after
(25:05):
Donald Trump. On the immigration front. A gun used in
Vermont and against a border agent and a border agent
shootout is linked to a double murder suspect according to prosecutors.
Good grief, it's so dangerous these jobs.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
The murder of a Pennsylvania couple is linked to the
deadly shooting of this Vermont patrol agent. That case in Delaware,
that couple killed in their home in late twenty two
now linked to the line of duty shooting death of
that border patrol agent in Vermont. By the way, why
did Democrats defend violent criminal illegal immigrants against Trump?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Braids?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Why I'll tell you what I think it's come down to.
Democrats would rather score key political points and run on
a narrative that they're the most compassionate people on earth.
But then I'm having compassion for the murder the Americans murdered, raped,
and victims of violent crime. Makes absolutely no sense at all. Anyway,
(26:12):
there are reports out there about some trans cult but
I have not been able to independently verify all this,
so I'm going to hold off and we'll have more
on that on Monday. US sheriff could face prosecution. Acting
US Deputy Attorney General called on Thursday for an investigation
of an upstate New York sheriff who released and undocumented
illegal immigrant from custody, and apparent escalation of the Trump
(26:35):
administration's campaign against sanctuary cities. Anyway, who was named Deputy
Attorney General last week, He said that the US Attorney
for the Northern District of New York is looking into
the failure of the sheriff to honor a federal arrest warrant.
Let me tell you what that's called, aiding in a
betting and law breaking. If I did it, I go
to jail. Especially with Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, a
(26:59):
notorious migrant gang expanding its presence in democratic cities as
ICE is struggling to keep up. In this case Aurora, Colorado.
Pretty scary what's been going on there. No immigrants should
be detained. As a left wing nonprofit, really this is
a pretty interesting They're called the Acacias Center for Justice,
(27:20):
left wing group. They say that the federal immigration contract
claims that the immigration system is intentionally designed to exploit
black and brown people. Is spending apparently overseeing seven hundred
and sixty nine million dollars providing lawyers for illegal aliens,
and the group says that its aim is to provide
due process. You see, when you enter the country illegally,
(27:43):
you're not an American citizen. You don't have the same
rights as American citizens. Anyway, eight hundred and nine to
four to one, Shawn outgoing DNC chair Little Late says
Democrats they should have stuck with Biden. California got to
give a tip of the hat to Gavin Newsom. I
know you heard me right. He apparently has stopped a
(28:03):
vote to Trump proof proof the state, avoiding public debate
overfunding that protects the illegals with felony convictions. You know what,
that's going to result in a rest of a lot
of officials in California. If they try and interfere, they
should look into the supremacy clause of the US Constitution.
All Right, you voted big government out, you've voted aficient
(28:25):
government in going to take a while for the Harris
Biden economy to be replaced. We're looking at reconciliation to
make that happen. But in the meantime, one way you
can save money, not sacrifice services with your cell phone provider. Now,
I use Pure Talk, a veteran owned company, and if
you're still on Verizon AT and T and T Mobile,
(28:45):
well you're going to get the same exact cell towers
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And they'll offer you unlimited talk, text and fifteen gigs
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(29:09):
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Speaker 2 (29:30):
Unity uncovers the real truth. It's about the politics of DC.
He's your watchdog on Baby.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Brother, every day entity is on right now.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
All right, we have a lot to cover today.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
We'll check in with our aviation experts when we come
back and what we have learned about this midair crash
over the Potomac. Also, this group Moms behind Make America
Healthy Again. They're having a huge impact helping RFK Junior.
We'll get to that. My interview with JD Van's coming up.
Your call's coming up eight hundred and ninety four one
(30:10):
SEAWAN on this Friday
The Sean Hannity Show News
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Sean Hannity
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